Reunions to Cherish
by Golden28
Summary: When the dust of the scandal settles and the CIA has been purged, Aaron leaves Marta and heads off to Africa. Months later he heads back to D.C to reunite with the dark eyed doctor he can't forget. However fate likes to throw monkey wrenches into carefully laid plans. Aaron has competition: deadly competition.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Dr. Marta Shearling groaned and put her head in her hands. That action did not stop her cell phone from insistently ringing but it did make her feel slightly better. Not for the first time in the past week she wished to go back in time to the four days she and Aaron had been on that fishing boat leaving Manila, lost and without responsibility. Those had probably been the best four days of her life, which was saying something, considering that they'd been being chased by the CIA. Marta reached for her phone and calmly turned it off instead of smashing it on the pavement like she really wanted to. She accepted the coffee that the waitress brought to her gratefully. 'Get outside, breathe in the fresh spring air, drink coffee and listen to the birds sing. You'll feel better about this whole thing.' Words of wisdom that had come from her mother that morning, they'd been working for about ten minutes.

Then, her phone had blown up again with calls from her ex-boyfriend Peter Boyd, again. He'd been calling periodically all month. She'd once been woken up at night by her phone; it had rang in the lab, startled her on the car ride home and in the shower. He just wouldn't leave her alone! The first time he'd called Marta had answered, thinking that he'd heard about her on the news after the scandal went public with the verdict. The scandal had been on of biblical proportions and she was talking Old Testament proportions. Pamela Landy had ultimately figured out that the CIA was somehow tapped into her plans for the senate after Hirsch's untimely heart attack and the false accusations of treason against her. After that she'd fired her lawyers, gotten a track phone and figured out the next best thing to Hirsch and, had gone after it.

Yamin Hayes was twenty two and had an IQ that granted her MENSA membership by the age of four. At the first senate hearing Marta and Aaron had attended they'd met the girl that had conceived the heinous idea of the invulnerable assassin program, unknowing that her idea would become reality after the agents handling her took the notebook she'd been working on it in away. They'd directed her to get back to work on other projects. She'd been twenty at the time of the hearing, had pin straight black hair and shocking blue eyes. She, Aaron, Jason Bourne, and Nicky Parsons along with three other assets sat stunned in the audience and watched the slightly uncomfortable genius in a khaki blazer explain how she had come up with the idea of a small network of high functioning assets that would become a stronger core for the Agency. Yamin had created the complete plan for the network in two days when she was thirteen years old and the idea gotten stuck in her mind. Aaron had turned to her with such a deer in the head lights look when he'd heard the girl's age that she'd had to stop herself from laughing out loud during Yamin's rather sad explanation of how she'd ended up working for the CIA at the age of five when her parents had left her in foster care, at a loss of how to handle the young prodigy.

Marta sighed sipping her latte and staring at her currently inoperative cell phone. I could benefit from a new number she thought to herself. The distraction of watching the people stroll along on the side walk relaxed her. She thought about their lives, and trampled down jealously over their normalcy and that they took for granted. None of them had ever had an intelligence agency try to kill them. That thought wasn't fair she knew, sometimes it stung thinking of what had been taken not just from her but from Jason Bourne, Nicky Parsons, Aaron and all the other operatives. She distracted herself from the grim thoughts creeping up on her by creating a story for the woman in the blue dress sitting on a park bench talking on her cell phone. Marta let her imagination run wild. The woman's name was Della and she was a house wife bored in her marriage talking to her young sexy, Latin lover. The woman smiled that coy, flattered smile that women get when handsome men compliment them and she wondered if her story was so far off. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a slight glimpse of the back of a dark haired man about six feet tall with military bearing who was just turning away. Jerking around Marta helplessly searched the crowed for the man but couldn't find the figure that she'd spotted seconds before. Sighing she gave up the doomed search for a person who likely wasn't even there. Six months ago, the senate hearings had come to an end and the committee had sacked over half the CIA's staff and had nearly everyone in a position of power fired or thrown in prison for murdering their assets, attempting to murder all the ones who'd survived, breaking international laws, breaking privacy laws, and numerous human rights violations. After they were in the clear and no longer needed for their testimonies all of the people that had been connected to the program had dispersed, now comfortable and safe in their own country. It was a happy ending, for all of them, except maybe the CIA's officials who, she felt, had deserved what they'd gotten. Slumping further down in her chair she thought grimly about Aaron. He'd left almost immediately after they'd been released from all government duties and she missed him with a horrifying intensity. In the first few days Marta had hoped that he'd call her going so far as to keep her cell phone with her at all times just in case he needed something. But on the fifth week she'd let that dream die and went back to her old habits of losing her cell phone periodically, and not really caring where it was. She was ashamed that she'd cried over him as much as she had. It had to have been some kind of suppressed emotions backlash sort of thing, she figured. But really didn't she deserve at the very least a call or a visit after saving his life, twice?

Sitting there she resumed glaring at her cell phone. Aaron wasn't there and he didn't really deserve her anger. He was probably trying desperately to return to civilian life after such a long time as both a soldier and an asset, and she couldn't really blame him for needing space. The thought pulled on her heart strings he shouldn't have to suffer alone; she thought sadly, I would have been there for him if he'd stayed around.

"Hey, doc," A familiar voice greeted amicably and none other than the subject of her forlorn thoughts, Aaron Cross, pulled out the chair opposite her and sat down with a smile.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Aaron wondered if Dr. Shearling was going to faint the way the color left her face as she stared at him like he was a ghost. Maybe he should have eased into this rather than surprising her, but Aaron had needed to see her in person after being gone for so long. Her eyes were wide and one hand rested on her heart as his eyes ran over her drinking her in. What had ever possessed him to run away from her, he wondered. He looked her over once again and frowned slightly. She'd lost at least fifteen pounds, Aaron calculated. She still hadn't said anything, but he'd only been there for about five seconds and he figured she was still stunned. Taking advantage of her shocked stupor he glanced down at the hand over her heart and took a moment to make sure that she hadn't starved off her ample chest. Nope. Good, he thought pleased. The first time he'd met her they'd been the second thing he'd noticed after how pretty she was. He checked out her bust one more time while she still wouldn't notice.

"Where have you been?" She hissed. Oh…that.

"I've been in Mombasa mostly," He explained picking up a sugar packet and playing with it, mostly so that he wouldn't have to look her in the eyes. "A few other places, too"

"I see," She said flatly, straightening herself. Aaron took a deep calming breath; he'd been anticipating her anger when he'd left so suddenly after the senate had cleaned house on the CIA. She had every right to be and he owed her an explanation.

"Marta, I'm sorry that I worried you when I left. I'm sorry that I didn't call, that I didn't explain but I had to go. I just had to. I'd been tied down for so long, unable to escape….. I really didn't plan anything out I just left and then I couldn't stop moving because it was the first time that I'd been able to move around freely…" He stopped abruptly when she covered his hand with her own. Gathering his courage he looked up into her hazel green eyes. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the understanding welling up in her eyes.

"Thanks," He said gruffly and grasped her hand tightly in his own refusing to let go.

A moment of peace passed between them. Nothing was said but each knew that the other was glad to see them.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Marta asked as she reached for her coffee again, needing the caffeine suddenly.

"Yes. Freedom. I had it since the Senate began purging the Agency I just wanted to go feel it, I suppose," He said compulsively explaining himself to her. "I considered going to see my mother and sister in Texas. That just didn't feel right, so I sent them a letter explaining myself from Washington D.C the day the trial ended."

"I'm sorry," She said suddenly. Aaron looked up from staring at their interlocked hands meeting her eyes. He could read her eyes easily after being on the run with her for over a year and keeping them safe between harrowing interrogations by pushy senators who had gone after the truth like pit bulls. None of them, he realized at some point after the trial, had really liked Ezra Cramer or the CIA in general. Perhaps it had been their saving grace that the politicians held such a hatred for the clandestine agency because their brutal assault on the Agency had let the remaining operatives live safe lives now. Politicos were good for something after all.

"What do you mean," He asked frowning. She'd saved his life.

"I'm sorry for being part of the organization that ruined your life," She said bluntly. He saw the shame in her gaze and he didn't like it. It just didn't fit with her personality, so kind, sweet and full of compassion that even extended to him, a cold assassin with enough skeletons to fill a celebrity's walk in closet.

"No. Look," Aaron announced scooting his chair around the bistro table so that he was sitting only a few inches from her. "You didn't know anything you didn't even know what I was, what I did when I left the lab. Don't look so ashamed. I don't like it: they used you, Marta. You're a victim here, not an accomplice."

She looked away. Now it was her who couldn't look at him, he realized.

"Tell me what you've been up to since I went crazy with my new found freedom," He instructed, changing the topic and flagged down the waitress to give her his order. She relaxed after that and began to tell him all the things that she'd been doing. How she'd gotten a job at a medical research facility that she'd be able to travel to the rainforest and search for medicinal plants in her new position. She'd published a paper of virus mapping as a tool to help fight cancer, and several other odds and ends about her life after Outcome.

"Wow," Aaron said surprised after she finished. "If I'd been gone for a year you'd have conquered North America!" He smirked at her blush. She tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled shyly.

"No I wouldn't have," She protested. He just smiled and leaned back in his chair, turning to the sunlight like a reptile sunning himself.

"You really like warm places don't you?" Marta inquired sipping what was now her second cup of coffee.

His head snapped up surprised. The outcome agent in him still didn't like people knowing personal details about him and he pushed aside a defensive, threatened response and asked "How can you tell?" in a measured tone.

"Well you kind of have a habit of sunning yourself even in this heat when most people are running for the air conditioning…." She trailed off awkwardly. "Sorry?" She offered meekly, knowing that she'd crossed some sort of line even if she didn't know what it was.

"Don't be," Aaron replied. One hand ran over his face rubbing tiredly. "I can't really turn it off," He said grim, but sincere. The confession cost him she saw. In a moment of profound understanding she realized that he would always be like this: hyper aware, searching for threats on some level, planning exits in the back of his mind…. It had to be exhausting.

"Aaron are you alright?" She asked sympathetically, taking his hand again.

"Yes, I just don't quite know what to do now that I'm not running anymore; there aren't any dragons to slay and part of me is bored."

"I can relate," Marta replied dryly arching an eyebrow. The adjustment from international fugitive to private citizen had been a rough one.

"That you can," He agreed. "I think the establishment is getting annoyed that we've been here three hours," He observed jerking his head towards the barista who was giving them the stink eye.

"We've been here three hours?" Marta gasped fumbling to turn on her cell phone.

"Almost," Aaron replied. He watched enjoying the way that she got flustered when she was nervous or embarrassed.

"We've been here over three hours! No wonder she's so annoyed!" Marta said aghast.

"I have to go to a meeting at noon, so I have to go. But if you want to have coffee again, I'd like that." He held his breath hoping that she'd agree. He wasn't sure why it meant so much whether or not she wanted to see him again, but it did.

"Yes, absolutely" She responded quickly pulling a pad and pen out of her designer tote bag. He resisted the urge to sigh in relief as she wrote down her address and phone number for him.

"I'll see you later," She said with a sunny smile that left him feeling much happier than was appropriate. He waved and headed the opposite direction, wondering just what in the world was happening to him.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

On Tuesday afternoon she called and invited him out for coffee the following morning at the same coffee shop from Saturday. Not having any business to attend to that day, he'd agreed quickly. The next morning he'd arrived early at the coffee shop and picked an outdoor table with a view inside the café and of the street. Situating his chair so that his back was to the building he took in his surroundings and studied the people milling around. The dark haired girl in the corner with her back to the street had some sort of extensive martial arts back ground in a Japanese art probably Aikido or Hapkido by the way she held herself. He ignored her after assessing her. There was no way that a teenager studying chemistry was an operative sent to kill him. Aaron tried to remind himself that there were no more operatives after him, and he could now stop looking over his shoulder. It didn't console him much, but he pulled a newspaper out of his jacket and went to work circling the real estate listings that he liked anyways. The process was kind of fun, he realized. Now that he was able to settle down he wanted to do so in comfort, he decided and he began to flip through listings more critically.

"I'm so sorry I'm late!" Marta gasped as she sank into the chair across from him. "I had a late night last night," She elaborated. She defiantly looked like she hadn't gotten enough sleep and he found himself slightly concerned with that, coupled with the weight loss. But for all her apologies over her lateness, Aaron hadn't really minded the extra time to himself. He smiled at her agitated demeanor, only half listening to her ramble about getting caught at every single crosswalk on the way here_. I really have to get over this attraction to her_, he thought to himself. _There isn't a hope in the world she'll want a banged up ex-assassin like me, whether or not she's compassionate towards me or not. An assassin with more baggage than a socialite on a trip to Europe_, he amended, watching her order a Carmel mocha latte from the waitress. He filed the tidbit of information about her coffee preferences away for later.

* * *

Marta left her apartment that morning harried and once again turning off her cell phone to avoid more calls from Peter. Last night he'd stood outside her door pounding on it and hollering about how much he loved her. It had frightened her enough that she'd ducked into the bed room, called the police and held a pillow over her head until the screaming stopped. She'd refused to press charges against Peter contrary to the advice of the officers at her door, because she hadn't wanted to hurt him. He was most likely distressed about something and was coping by projecting those feelings on to her. Why he'd picked her to project on to after two years she didn't know. She'd have to look into it later, make a few calls and ask mutual friends what was going on with him. She'd only fallen into bed at midnight and had woken up late, and ran to the coffee shop for her meeting with Aaron fifteen minutes late. _He probably thinks that I forgo_t, she thought. _What if he's already left_? The thought panicked her and she quickened her pace hoping to get to the café on time. She'd been relived, embarrassed and nervous when she saw him sitting outside at a table reading a newspaper. As Marta took a chair and launched into an apology and an explanation for her lateness she felt slightly inadequate next to him. He was breath taking in pressed black slacks and a green polo shirt that matched his eyes and doubled their impact whereas she was only wearing a simple cargo dress.

"Well I hope you're not too tired from your late night to help me wander around Washington in search of a new place to live," He invited when the waitress left.

"What?" She asked the man across from her blankly. Those eyes were distracting her. He really didn't need eyes that shade of green when he was already tall and handsome. He should have bland indistinct eyes just to keep the scales balanced.

"Well I hate to sound like a spoiled brat, but after six months living out of hotels or tents in the wilderness my tolerance has been strained. I don't know Washington, so I've enlisted your help. Take pity on me, Doctor?" He inquired leaning across the table and staring into her eyes with exaggerated pleading.

"Yes, of course I'd love to help you look," She gave in immediately. Trying to ignore the light, happy feeling swelling in her that he'd chosen her to help him with such a big task she took the paper he offered and scanned the listings he'd circled.

"Aren't these a little pricey?" Marta asked. An amused grin slipped over his face and she glanced up in time to see it.

"Right, never mind," she dismissed the thought, a flush still coating her cheeks. She'd been there when he'd gotten the eight figure government payout.

"She shall we get started?" he asked standing to lead her to his car once she'd reviewed the listings he'd selected. She slid in the low slung Mercedes sports car carefully tucking the short dress around her. Aaron tried not to drool over her legs as she slid into the car cautiously. _You're just friends_, he reminded himself, and fought the urge to touch her hand where it rested frustratingly close to his on the counsel. He could read Marta reasonably well after spending so much time on the run with her, so he recognized when she retreated back into her shell. It was this shell that he knew she'd created to protect herself, at his suggestion, against the emotions that being on the run had brought. Sitting across from her in the car he noticed the distance in her eyes as she mechanically gave him directions to Mount Pleasant and he kicked himself again for ever suggesting that she should turn off her emotions. _When had she gotten so good at it?_ He wondered silently.

They pulled over and met the real estate agent that had been kind enough to meet them on short notice at the door. It wasn't surprising that he'd made room to show them around, considering the commission he had coming if he managed to get Aaron to buy today. The first place was a Victorian with high ceilings, plenty of natural light but the rooms were small. Marta could see the distaste rolling off of Aaron at the cramped style and almost laughed. The real-estate agent didn't notice anything amiss with his client and kept trying to sell him on the house but Marta knew there wasn't any way that Aaron was buying this place now.

"You hated the small rooms," She stated when they were back in the car.

"I wasn't that obvious was I?" He asked pulling out in the street to follow the agent to another listing.

"No, not at all," Marta laughed "You get a wrinkle between your eyebrows when you don't like something, that's all. If I didn't know that I wouldn't have noticed anything, much like that agent."

"Yes," Aaron groaned. "I thought that he'd never stop talking about the view from the picture window. That picture window is dangerous," He exclaimed animatedly waving his hands. Marta giggled. "The only way that I could ever live in that house is if the picture window had bullet proof glass. No, actually I probably couldn't, even then."

Eight houses later they finally found what Aaron deemed suitable. She'd known that he'd like it the minute they'd pulled up to the old fashioned Tudor home in Chevy Chase. There were no picture windows, a pool in the back yard, a large office in the attic, and the rooms were large and spacious. Come to think of it her whole apartment could probably fit into the living room, she thought glancing back towards the room. But the thing that had probably sealed the deal, if she knew Aaron at all, was the wrought iron spiked security fence surrounding the property. It was a fearsome looking piece of work that stood at least six feet tall and had two gates, one in front yard and one in the back yard.

"I've arranged to make an offer on the house today," Aaron announced stepping back in the front hall where she was waiting.

"Today?" Marta asked surprised.

"I move fast when I want something," He replied cheekily and smiled, stealing her breath from her lungs. Only a few times had she ever seen him truly smile the warmth it brought to his eyes always made her tingle with wanting. It was unfair for only a smile to give him such power over her she thought still dazed, as he led her to the car and held open the door for her. If he ever took the notion to honestly pursue her she would be helpless against him and it frightened her. Anything he wanted she would willingly give no matter the consequences. A shiver skirted down her spine as her imagination filled in a detailed picture of what the fallout of an affair with him would bring her emotionally. Marta thought of Peter, not for the first time that day. Her ex had been weighing heavily on her mind the whole week. He was probably stalking her, she realized now, with all the insistent calling and the way he'd shown up at her door so late raising a ruckus. _What did you do when you were being stalked_, she wondered. The perfect person to answer that question was sitting right next to her, if she could ask. How to form the question though? Perhaps she should just tell him what was going on. He'd be able to protect her. But she didn't want protecting; she realized she'd relied on him for too much and for too long. Besides, she justified her decision; he would most likely snap both of Peter's legs if he knew what was going on. Glancing out of the corner of her eye at him, she confirmed that he still held that dangerous edge to him and could severely harm her ex on a whim, even if he wasn't an Outcome operative anymore. A delicious heat curled in her lower belly as she thought about the day that they'd just spent together. Spending the day with him had been wonderful but perhaps putting herself so close to a man who affected her so profoundly wasn't such a good idea. She'd been driven mad by every touch every brush of his hand and lingering look from those shadowy hunter green eyes feeling her breast grow heavy and her thighs warm. At some point in the last two years she'd fallen for him. Now that he was back she could no longer dance around it and label it different things that allowed her to dodge the truth. Attraction, gratefulness, friendship, desire… she'd labeled each emotion as it came, hiding from the reality that she loved a man who would never love her back, because he wasn't capable.

The senate review committee had gone into great detail about the behavior modifications that the operatives had received for the human rights charges to be drawn up. As each experiment came into light, they'd left her stomach twisting and nauseous. She had to fight the lump rising in her throat as Aaron, Jason and other operatives recounted being water boarded, having his feet beaten with a pipe, being held in stress positions, whipped until they passed out and having a screw driver, heated with a flame thrower, pressed against the sensitive inside of their thighs repeatedly. These tortures had taken place before the physical enhancements had been made, so there were plenty of scars to provide evidence for the accusations of maltreatment.

But it was the diminished emotional response that had made her sicker than anything. Physical torture was one thing, but to twist someone's psyche the way that they had, to take away their ability to connect with another person….. it wasn't hard to see why Jason and Aaron were so removed. Their lack of emotions had made it easier to mold them into the stoic killers that the CIA had wanted, but there was no rebounding from such emotional and psychological abuse now. Marta held no hope that he would ever reciprocate her feelings, so she buried them deeply. He could never know that she was mooning over him like a love sick teenager. All that Aaron wanted was her friendship and he could gladly have it. The prospect that someday he might discover her feelings for her and excuse himself from her life altogether spurred her efforts to bury her emotions deeper. If he knew that she wanted anything deeper than mere companionship…..Goodbye friendship, goodbye Aaron.

"You're quiet over there," Aaron observed as he skillfully avoided a traffic jam by slipping on to a side road. He'd seen her go back into her shell and wasn't about to tolerate it a second time. They only had a few minutes left together before he had to think up another reason to see her again after an appropriate amount of time.

"Sorry, just lost in my own thoughts," Marta excused herself. "I meant to ask you earlier what you do. You mentioned work…" She trailed off wondering if she was prying.

"Because I don't have to work anymore, you mean?" She nodded and he chuckled. "I tried to relax and do nothing when I was traveling. It just didn't work. I have to be busy, I've found or I'll go crazy. I set up an office and an investment company here in Washington D.C after I filed the paper work, which sounds easy, but it was a real chore from Zimbabwe. So now I'm putting that increased intelligence that the government gave me to good use in the business world. Beside the risks give me some sort of adrenaline rush that I was missing. It isn't as exciting as going into the rain forest to hunt for viruses," He teased, "but it provides a nice distraction."

"That's a side effect from our treatment," Marta noted. "The increased brain activities make you restless, and want mental challenges so that it doesn't go unused."

"Not just a science experiment Doc," He joked with a smile as he usually did when she brought up his enhancements. The Mercedes slipped into a rather lucky parking spot right in front of her apartment building and he came around to let her out of the car.

"Let me walk you up and check out your security system," He said ushering her inside. Marta smiled and accepted, knowing that he needed to see her security system more than he wanted to. It was something that all the operatives had acknowledged they couldn't shake. The need for tight security, to check and double check things, were a permanent part of their nature and a cruel reminder to her now of the reason why he would never love her.

Inside her apartment he undid the security system and scowled at it for a long time poking and prodding at it with the tools she'd brought him.

"Well it works, but the installer left the wires that can dismantle it exposed. I rearranged the wires so that they can't be dismantled," He explained accepting the cup of coffee she extended to him easily and sitting down next to her on the couch.

"Thank you." Marta said, more grateful than she let on. Her ex-boyfriend wouldn't have a hope of getting in without setting off the alarm and she felt infinitely safer now that Aaron had declared her apartment secure.

It wasn't until almost an hour later that he left. Time seemed to slip away when he was with her, and she hugged herself tightly, sitting alone in her small living room now. Even though she knew she was safe her mind played evil tricks on her in the solitude pushing images of Peter breaking in and murdering her to the forefront of her thoughts. Logically her mind knew that such fate only had a slim possibility of becoming true but all the same she found the pistol that Aaron had given her the day he'd left after the trial and cleaned it as he'd taught her to, as she did every night. The revolver she used to keep had been forgiving to lax maintenance which was why she'd chosen it. Before she'd become a target, marked for death, owning a high powered weapon had seemed ridiculous. Now looking down at the .22 caliber Smith & Wesson, she was glad that she had it and glad that she knew how to use it. It wasn't until much later that she fell into an uneasy sleep with the gun on her night stand.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you for all the lovely reviews, they really do inspire me. Even if you only have a few words, I enjoy hearing from the people who read this, your responses are wonderful to read and I always consider my feed back before writing a new chapter.**

Chapter 4

Aaron surveyed his house for the third time that morning, wandering from room to room checking that everything was in its place and that all the furniture had been delivered. His search yielded nothing new. The rooms were in order, painted to his specifications, all the dark depressing tones had been removed, and the rooms painted colors that suited him. He surveyed the beige colored dining room and finally realized what was missing: someone to share it with. He should invite Marta over and cook dinner for her. _Maybe it will turn into something more_… a sinister voice taunted him, dangling the thing he wanted most in front of him, knowing all the while there wasn't a hope on earth that he could have it. Angrily he growled, spinning on his heel and stalking from the dining room. He needed a shower desperately, still covered in sweat from his ten mile run around Rock Creek Park and then another two miles home.

Entering the bedroom he glanced around the cozy space, now painted black, the one dark color that he'd used in the whole house. It made the large bedroom seem intimate and protected. The king size bed covered in a golden duvet drew his eye, creating an unbidden image of Marta sitting on it dressed in a skimpy nightgown, looking at him with those soft sexy eyes that she didn't realize that she had. One look from those eyes and men melted at her feet, himself included. The picture made his blood rage in his body and flood to places that it shouldn't. He stormed towards the shower, getting ready to make it a cold one. _I should have run longer_, he thought. _Then I'd be too tired to picture her in my bed_. But he was lying to himself and he knew it. Never ever would he be too tired to think of the scientist who had saved his life.

* * *

Marta checked her cell phone nervously as she walked into the lobby of her building at five thirty that evening. Aaron had sent a text message mid-morning inviting her to dinner adding 'dress casual' on to the end. She hated it when she didn't know what that meant. Scanning her closet nothing in it seemed to live up to her expectations. The dress was too formal, the shirt too casual, and so it went on. After a look at the clock told her that she didn't have time to dither over her looks she threw on a pair of cropped linen pants and a knit top. As she finished her make up in the mirror a loud crash out in the hallway sent her running to the door. Fervently she hoped that her elderly neighbor Ms. Dunn hadn't fallen down the stairs and been injured. She threw open the door cell phone in hand, ready to call 911 and came face to face with none other than Peter Boyd. The last person in the world that she wanted to see.

"Marta! I'm so happy to see you!" He gasped. His eyes were bright with fever and spun slightly back and forth staring into the apartment behind her and then back at her. She moved discreetly to block his view, noting the vase of roses that he seemed to have dropped on the floor in front of her apartment.

"I'm actually a bit busy Peter now isn't a good time," She excused. _So this is why he hasn't called today_, she realized_, he wanted to throw me off balance by catch me off guard._

"Are you too busy to see your boyfriend?" He asked trying to joke with her. At his crack her insides froze and her stomach lurched. He must be more unbalanced than she'd previously thought.

"We aren't seeing one another anymore it's been almost two years. We aren't dating."_ I_ _have to get out of here_, Marta decided. She was most likely alone in the small apartment building and if she could get to Aaron's house or outside where there would be more bystanders, it would be much safer there. She stepped out into the hallway and locked the apartment door behind her carefully keeping as much distance between her and her ex as she could. In her right hand she gripped her keys between her knuckles as a weapon, tensed and ready to use them at any second.

"Actually we were working things out," Peter protested following her down the stairs to the lobby.

"Well two years is a long time and I don't think that we have anything left between us," Marta stated firmly, charging through the lobby at a clipped pace. _My car is parked on the street, please let me get to my car, then I can get away from him_, she hoped desperately, as panic flooded her. She pushed through the doors to the street and nearly sighed in relief as she saw her car parked only a dozen feet away.

"Hey," Peter protested grabbing her by the upper arms violently and pulling her close to him. "You can't do that! You can't just say our relationship is over and then it's just over! It isn't fair to me!" He yelled frightening her further as his hands gripped her arms painfully.

"You're hurting me," she choked out. "Please, Peter."

He paused for a second and that was all that she needed to break his hold. She ran, sprinting to her car, jerked open the door and then slammed it just as he caught up to her.

"Open the door," He screamed at her through the car window. Ignoring him she fled the parking spot and completely ignored the speed limit for the next few miles. Only once she was certain that he was gone did she allow herself to pull over and cry. Once the tears started she was helpless to stop them they kept rolling down her cheeks as sobs violently racked her entire body. _Why was this happening?_ Marta felt sick to her stomach and almost ready to throw up. _Wasn't everything supposed to be going smoothly for her now that Vossen and the rest of the Outcome were shut down? _She knew that it was ridiculous to think that she deserved everything to go smoothly after the last tragedy in her life; that wasn't realistic. Things didn't just go smoothly because one problem was solved. There would always be another dragon lurking around the corner. She thought of what Aaron had said about being out of dragons to slay. _That may be true for you but it's not for me,_ she thought. For the umpteenth time today she considered confiding in him. He would want to solve the problem for her but she didn't want to put him on the spot like that. He'd already been protecting her for the past two years, he was probably sick of it. This she would have to face on her own. The places where he'd grabbed her were beginning to bruise as Marta wiped her eyes and examined them. A sigh passed her lips as she surveyed the damage to her upper arms, but she grabbed the cardigan from the seat next to her to cover up the evidence of her unfortunate encounter. Aaron had done enough for her; this problem was one she was going to face on her own. Pulling away from the side of the road where she'd stopped to cry, Marta went in search of a bottle of wine to bring as a house warming gift for Aaron.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thank you for your kind reviews, they really helped me write this chapter. All reviews are appreciated, even short ones.**

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Chapter 5

It took a while for her to find the right bottle of white wine to bring but she was grateful that she'd taken the extra time to search when they cracked open the sweet wine at the dinner table. She was surprised that he was such a good cook; never before when they were running together had he stopped to cook.

"That was the best Paella I have ever had in my entire life," Marta told him honestly as they cleared away the dishes.

"One of the luxuries of living this close to the sea is the fresh sea food," He agreed. "It was an authentic recipe I picked up in Andalusia."

"Oh, why were you in Spain," Marta asked and then winched promptly. That question had slipped off her tongue before she could censor it. Aaron looked over and caught her adverse reaction.

"Relax. This was back when I was a Marine. I was stationed at the Rota Naval base in Spain for a short while before being sent to Iraq back in 2003. My mother had drilled cooking into me since I was about seven. You could say that I learned to enjoy it. That was very important to her, because my father had no idea how to cook and it drove her nuts. Anyways cooking was a good hobby for me."

"That's sweet of her. She taught you well," Marta praised.

"Thank you," he replied smiling.

She'd been very relaxed in his company the whole evening and had eaten and drank far more than she normally did. The wine was going to her head and as they finished up the dishes she enjoyed the close proximity the cozy galley kitchen forced them to keep. It wasn't a small kitchen by any means, but it was slightly tight for two people, and she happily enjoyed the accidental brush of his body as he slipped behind her reaching for a cabinet. Several times she didn't even bother to move out of the way at all just so that she could enjoy the feel of his body behind hers. Such behavior was unnatural for her, coming much easier for her sister Eliza than her. Eliza could make innuendos and laugh with the best of them but the talent had never come naturally to Marta. Even romantic games that weren't meant to be taken seriously were difficult for her, feeling unnatural and uncomfortable. Eliza had been the prettier, more popular of the two of them, but Marta had never thought to hold it against her. She was happier with books than people when they'd been kids, and for most of her younger years she'd retreated into science and school. Now, she wished that she'd asked her older sister for some pointers on the finer points of flirting. The last dish was placed in the dish washer before they refreshed their wine glasses and wandered out to the living room to relax. She must have had more wine than she thought because when she took a seat on the couch her body turned to butter, leaving her more relaxed than she'd been in years. The last four years, to be specific.

Aaron noticed the flush that the wine had brought to Marta's face from the wine he took the glass from her. "I think that you've about had your limit. You're about to go to sleep on me." Aaron resisted the urge to laugh at the situation. No woman had ever gone to sleep on him this early in the evening.

"Hmmm. Sorry, it was a long day," Marta apologized, leaning her head back. Her mind drifted to Peter again. She felt Aaron's hands on her shoulders as he began to knead the tense muscles in her neck and back. "Ooohhh," She moaned. "That feels so good."

His hand slipped under the cardigan as he laid her down on her stomach, moving to sit on the edge of the couch. "What are you doing?" She inquired sleepily.

"Shhh…I'm just rubbing your back. Tell me about today."

"Hmm. Well our entire computer system crashed at work, and none of the interns knew what to do with themselves so they were constantly underfoot and getting in my way. After lunch they turned the computer system back on, and half of my research is gone now. I snapped at a few interns…. I have to apologize for that tomorrow." She stopped talking after a few minutes, as wine lulled her into a haze with his hands masterfully removing all the built up stress and she quickly fell asleep to the gentle weight of his hands on her back.

Aaron continued to massage her back and shoulders, but he slowed in his motions, taking care not to wake her. Sleep was clearly what she needed. That and a few more good meals to replace the weight that she'd lost. He could feel her fragile rib cage beneath his hands through her thin blouse the cardigan had been shoved up for better access a long time ago. His hands shook slightly as he took a moment to slide his hands over the curves of her back committing them to memory. Marta was everything that he wasn't. She was soft where he was hard, gentle when he was rough, compassionate when he was cold, and more than anything, whole while he was broken. Broken by the program, by the relationships he'd given up when he'd joined and broken most of all by the pieces of himself that had been ripped away, that he'd never get back.

Aaron pulled himself out of his thoughts annoyed. _It isn't like there's anything anyone can do about it now_, he thought angrily. What had been done had been done. The only thing left to do was to keep moving forward, which is what he intended to do. Gently he woke Marta.

"Oh my word, I actually fell asleep on you!" She gasped as soon as she woke, horrified and embarrassed.

"Relax, you needed the sleep. You still do. I'd let you sleep on the couch but you'd wind up with a crick in your neck. Here, come on. You're too tired to drive, let's get you to the guest bedroom." Aaron helped her up and wrapped a strong arm around her torso, supporting her as they walked up the stairs.

Marta knew that she didn't need him to support her as they walked up the stairs. She was very tired, but not exhausted. She leaned into him anyway, enjoying the guilty pleasure of his body tucked against hers.

In the bed room Aaron regretfully let her go, and helped her into the bed, missing the soft pliable feel of her pressed against him. He heard her breathing change as he tucked her in when she burrowed deeply into the feather pillows and knew that she'd fallen to sleep once more. He tugged off her white cardigan to make her more comfortable and placed it on the nightstand, smiling as she turned into the pillow with a soft groan. Only when he glanced back down did he see the ugly purple hand print shaped bruises on her arms.

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**Don't forget to review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: See what reviews get you? Ask and you shall receive. The word count on this chapter was over three thousand- the most I've ever written as one chapter. I do listen to my reviewers and you'll see that he considers some of the things you mentioned. You should have seen me when I checked your reviews in my Chemistry class: my mouth feel open! I hadn't expected so many reviews! Thank you for your warm reception and please review again, it's a huge encouragement.**

Chapter 6

He felt chilled. Aaron could feel anger as well, but it was a distant, frigid anger. A long minute passed as he stared at the discolored bruises, his mind assessing them clinically, while his emotions spun like a violent centrifuge. Once he was certain he was back in control he considered waking her up and demanding answers, now that the worst of his livid rage was under a tight reign. He checked to make sure that she was really asleep: she was. _She needs sleep_, he reminded himself firmly. Aaron knew he had to get out of the room quickly before he did something rash. He stumbled over the first step on the stairs that led to his attic office. Finding the step more by feel than by sight he followed them by memory, eyes unseeing. He was in shock, he realized, sitting down heavily at the controls of the Multi-monitor computer station on his desk. He sank back into the desk chair and wondered when the last time he'd been in shock was. A very long time ago, he was certain. Aaron ran a hand over his face trying to erase the sight of Marta's injured arms that lingered behind his eyelids. He needed to do something useful, damn it! His head was spinning with incomplete thoughts, he was dizzy and he was still cold. He hated the cold. Shouldn't his system be resistant to shock after all the drugs they'd pumped him full of?

Aaron struggled with the recent events in his mind for the better part of the night. It wasn't difficult for him to stay awake. Somewhere in the experiments and gene alterations he had begun to sleep less and less. Currently, without being physically pushed day in and out by the program, he only needed four or five hours per night. Fore going sleep wasn't so hard on this night. How could he sleep when he had so many things to think about? Sleep would never come on this night, and he decided not to try. About 3 a.m. after he'd made a mental list of the reasons that Marta might not have told him about the bruises and the man who did this to her, because it was most definitely a man who'd left bruises that large, he got around to searching for security footage of when she'd been attacked. He paused, picturing the bruises in his mind again. They'd been dark purple and blue when he'd seen them, not fully colored in yet, still red around the edges. Aaron made some mental calculations and figured that they had been no older than four or five hours old when he'd seen them.

Digging up security cam footage of places she'd been to was easy. There were cameras at her office, her apartment, and the coffee shop she frequented which he began scanning thoroughly, adding computer programs to search for her in the crowds. Aaron was possessed by the need to know what happened to her, sensing that she would lie when he asked directly, if she'd been keeping this from him for….how long? He'd only been back half a month and had seen her three times. Coffee the day he got back, house hunting three days later, and tonight. He'd been here for fifteen days; she could have told him, but she hadn't. Aaron felt stung by her actions. He tried hard not to be, but he was angry. Two years of protecting her hadn't proved him worthy of her trust? If that didn't he didn't know what would. She probably didn't trust him because of who he was and the things he'd done, he bitterly realized as he scanned the footage. That he couldn't hold against her, because his hands were bloodstained and she had every right to not trust him because of his past. _Is it just your past?_ His mind taunted. He was still capable of killing easily and without compassion. He knew how to cause someone unimaginable pain, ruthlessly kill men, women and children and stay cold and withdrawn while doing it. It wasn't likely she'd ever trust a man like that. But he was trying to become a different man! Why couldn't she see that?

There. Four hours of footage and here it was, captured on a security camera outside of Marta's apartment. She was arguing with a man, walking quickly away from him, clearly trying to escape. The stranger caught her violently and swung her around sharply, digging his fingers tightly into the bare flesh of her arms. Aaron felt something that he'd never felt before when tears of distress began to leak from her eyes as the man screamed at her. He wasn't supposed to be able to feel things this deeply, he acknowledged, confused. His anger had never felt this way; it wasn't supposed to feel this way, burning, twisting, violent and smoldering inside his chest cavity, making his hands shake. Aaron Cross was supposed to be calm and removed unaffected by tears. He wasn't supposed to want to tear that man a part limb by limb and hide Marta away, to protect her and make sure that she would always be safe.

_Regardless of whatever I should or shouldn't be feeling, I have the man's face now,_ Aaron told himself, refocusing_. _A glance at the clock told him that he had at least two or three more hours before the woman in his guest bedroom woke up. That was enough time for him to hack the DMV and possibly find a name for the mystery man. He set the programs up to scan facial recognition and prioritized the list to people who'd had recorded contact with her in the past ten years. Once that was finally done, he headed down stairs leaving the program to run. In the kitchen he emptied the dish washer and started breakfast, checking the clock again. Marta would be up in roughly the next hour at least, if he still knew her patterns at all.

Scrambled eggs, bacon and hash browns were the breakfast that his mother had always drilled into him. Aarons smiled fondly as memories of Hannah Kitsome sprang to mind. He felt a pang of loss for the woman who'd given birth to him and raised him once more. Those pangs burned him, searing his heart with the knowledge that he'd hurt her so terribly. Faking his death…what had he been thinking? Ah, right. He'd been caught up in the opportunity to break out of the 'dumb jock' cliché that was his life, to serve his country which he'd always wanted to do more than anything, escape everything behind him and start over. He'd said it that day on the side of the road with Marta. They give you so much to lose.

He had a lot to lose right now, he decided, briskly pushing his sentimental thoughts away. Aaron placed the food on the table and headed up the stairs to check his program. It wasn't likely that anything had come of it in the hour that he'd used to cook breakfast. When he returned to a blinking screen that showed the face of the man in the video it was nothing short of a miracle. He had a few of those coming his way if the law of averages was still in effect. Peter Boyd, former boyfriend of Dr. Marta Shearling, had lost his mother six months ago and seemed to have developed a subsequent drinking habit after her death, judging by the DUI and drunken disorderly charges on his record. The man should have lost his driver's license a long time ago, and the fact that he still had one didn't increase Aaron's faith in the system. Now that he was armed with the information that was necessary to confront Marta, Aaron downloaded the video of her confrontation with her ex on to a notebook computer and headed back to the kitchen, ready for the coming storm.

Marta woke, drowsy and ridiculously comfortable in a bed that wasn't hers. Startled, she bolted upright and looked around frantically. _Where am I? _She panicked. _I'm in Aaron's guest room_ she realized and fell back into the pillows in relief. Forcing herself into motion Marta dragged herself out of bed and found her cardigan draped over the nightstand. She hoped that she'd been the one to remove it, knowing that Aaron would have a horrible reaction to her current situation if he found the marks that stained her arms. Even though he'd help her, like he always did, he would probably be thinking in the back of his mind all the while that she was a weak helpless burden. Repairing her hair the best she could, Marta followed the heavenly aroma of coffee and eggs down the stairs to the dining room where Aaron sat with a plate of food, idly reading a folded newspaper.

"Good morning," Marta smiled warmly as she sat down and helped herself to the bacon and a small portion of eggs.

"Is it," Aaron demanded, tossing aside the newspaper.

He was angry, angrier than she'd ever seen him and she instinctively pulled back. _Why was he so grouchy? _

"What did one of your companies bottom out overnight," Marta joked, trying not to be afraid of the man across from her. It was hard when glacier cold eyes glittered angrily back at her, unrelenting in their cutting gaze. His face was a mask, revealing nothing, other than intense disapproval and boiling anger. He leaned forward clasping his hands and placing his elbows on the table.

"You can take the cardigan off now, I saw what it was hiding last night when I put you in the guest room," Aaron informed her in an acidic tone.

A strangled gasp escaped her lips and the fork she'd been holding fell on to her plate with a crash. Blood roared in her ears as she stared at him, horrified. Her mind wasn't working. Her heart was no longer beating.

"Wh…what?" Marta managed to stammer, her eye going wide as she began to slowly process what was happening.

"Perhaps I can be clearer," Aaron announced bitterly, opening a notebook computer that rested at his elbow with quick decisive movements that attested to his rage. She watched, sickened, as he opened it and began playing the clip of her and Peter taken from a grainy surveillance camera across the street. Marta watched, unable to take her eyes from the screen as her nightmare from last night unfolded for a second time in front of her. _She walked towards her car… Peter caught her arm….He pulled her to him…..He shook her… Gripped her arms painfully…..She was terrified….._

"Turn it off!" Marta exclaimed, humiliation burning through her entire body. He obliged her and closed the computer. With a trembling hand she brushed her bangs away from her face and the warm heat of her blush. She was flushed red with shame and probably had ugly beads of sweat on her forehead, Marta thought hysterically, and covered her eyes with both hands, trying to block out the world. Her insides trembled with renewed fear and her stomach knotted.

"What happened?" Aaron's voice was still cold and unrelenting. Sickness roiled and twisted her stomach into painful knots. What did he think of her now?

"My ex showed up at my apartment and grabbed me, nothing else," she said shakily. Why was he doing this to her? Did he want her to hurt?

"Your ex-boyfriend Peter Boyd is an extremely unbalanced man, Marta," He explained his voice softer. She kept her hand over her eyes not daring to look up and see the look in his eyes. What did that even mean?

"I don't understand," She said after a few seconds removing her hand, but not looking up. She stared straight ahead at the dish of eggs instead and put her hands in her lap where she twisted them in anxiety.

"Boyd lost his mother six and a half months ago," He said passing her a copy of a death certificate for Helene Boyd. She scanned it then pushed it away, not wanting to have this conversation, but knowing that he wouldn't let her off the hook no matter what she did. Marta couldn't run and there was no place to hide.

"So you think that's why he picked me to harass. I met his mom once- we looked a lot alike. It was weird and we broke up a few months later. He was the one who picked that terrible house in the middle of nowhere."

Nothing was said for several minutes. Marta digested what he'd said and Aaron stared at her, feeling like a dog for hurting her with his discovery. It could have been done with a softer touch but he knew that by surprising her he had gotten more out of her. It wasn't much of a consolation to him. There was one more thing that he absolutely had to know before he could comfort her.

"Marta, why didn't you tell me about this the day that I came back," Aaron asked gently. She didn't look up and didn't say anything for a long minute.

"Women get stalked by their ex-boyfriends all the time. It isn't exactly a unique situation," She said defensively.

"When it's you that's getting stalked, it's a unique situation," Aaron snapped harshly. He gripped the edge of the table in a painfully tight grip and fought to find some of the restraint that had once been ingrained in him, before Marta had blasted her way past the solid iron walls that his trainers had so brutally erected within him.

"He's my ex, he's my problem, and I should be able to do this on my own," She snapped back suddenly angry with him for digging into her business and making her feel like this.

"You don't have to do it on your own, Marta! For heaven's sake! What if he'd shown up at your apartment with a gun and you'd opened the door? Huh? Then what? You'd be dead that's what!"

"I'm sorry!" Marta yelled and finally looked at him unshed tears glimmering in her eyes. Immediately Aaron regretted his sharp words, his earlier feelings of guilt compounded. He shut his eyes, let go of the table edge, inhaled through his nose, held it for two counts and then exhaled through his mouth. It calmed him down and he felt the muscles in his shoulders relax slightly for the first time in hours.

"Don't be sorry. Just be safe."

"What do you mean?" Marta said staring at him blankly. It wasn't like Peter was dangerous…

"I mean that even though you don't think that Boyd is out to hurt you, he will be. Right now he's going for a sense of control after he's been through a traumatic, life altering event. His ground is shifting. From what I dug up on him he's developed a drinking problem since his mother's death. That points to a behavioral change, because up until her death he was a boy scout. Your emotions are something he can control, that gives him a respite from his grief."

"I don't see where you're going with this. All he's done is call insistently and show up once or twice," Marta protested.

"Boyd wants the power trip that scaring you can generate. It was probably enough to call you or watch you from a distance, maybe at first, but now he needs more." Taking her shaking had between both of his, he gritted his teeth and asked her one more unpleasant but necessary question. "What did he say to you?"

"He was mostly angry that I'd broken up with him. He said that I didn't have a right to, I couldn't do that," He gripped her hand tightly when he felt it begin to tremble with renewed fervor. Fury welled in him at the man. This terror she was feeling here and now was the result of the sick game that Boyd had chosen to play with her. It made his hands itch to snap the man's neck.

"I'm sorry that I had to ask that," He whispered pushing aside his anger to focus on Marta. A tear slipped down her cheek and her free hand clamped over her mouth to contain the sobs that were coming. "I'm sorry," Aaron murmured and pulled her from her chair and into his lap, cradling her tenderly to his chest. "Marta, I'm sorry I've scared you, honey, but I had to do it, I had to," Aaron soothed. He ran his fingers through her hair while she cried into his neck, enjoying its silky weight sliding through them.

She didn't cry for very long. Most of her emotions had been drained out of her the evening before when she'd pulled over to cry on the side of the road and the warmth of Aaron all around her helped. Her tears slowly came to a stop as he held her murmuring comforts and soft words in her ear.

"What do I do," She choked out when the tears slowed to a slow trickle, still clinging tightly to his shoulders.

"Contact the police, more as a courtesy than anything else. We have to get you a restraining order first, so that there's a record that he's been harassing you. Then you need to tell people what's going on so that they'll know if something goes wrong."

"I didn't need to tell you," Marta grumbled still stinging over his invasion. "You badgered it out of me. That wasn't fair." One eye brow jumped on Aaron's brow and he gave her a droll look.

"Would I be where I am today if I played fair?" He asked with a smirk.

"No. No, you wouldn't," She admitted. Digging, doing research and finding things were in his nature. It was how he'd been trained to solve a problem- with superior information and a plan. She couldn't hold that against him when she knew it was an irreversible trait that he'd been taught. "Then what?" she asked knowing there would be more.

"We keep a record of when he calls and tries to contact you. No matter what he does, don't communicate with him. If he can't get to you, he might end the game, since he's not getting anything out of it. Always lock your doors, I don't care if you're home or not, and keep that security system I repaired turned on all the time. On that same note always keep your cell phone charged and with you."

"I lose it often," Marta nodded laying her head on his shoulder. She'd been sitting on his lap for the better part of the hour but it didn't seem to bother him and she was very comfortable.

"Stop that," He admonished. "The last thing you need to know is that my house is your safe zone. Anything happens, if you feel like something's off you come here. I'll make you an extra key. There's one more thing," He added hesitating.

"Hmmm?" She tilted her face to look at him.

"We need to teach you self-defense in case of a repeat of yesterday ever happens."

**Please review.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thank you for all the reviews they have been so encouraging! This chapter went up a bit later than I wanted it to but I hope you forgive me for that (School stuff and all that jazz). In this chapter I sort of fade out Peter and try to set Aaron and Marta up.**

Chapter 7

"Oh." Her eyes blinked. "Oh, I see," Marta realized what he was alluding to and images of dark car parks and violence came to mind. _This really shouldn't scare me anymore_, she thought. _Not after everything I've been through. I should have thought about the possibility that he might be waiting for me in the backseat of my car one night after work._

"Relax, honey. I can teach you what you need to know. But the sooner we start the better off you'll be," He explained. Marta sighed and slid off his lap.

"Today's Saturday. Can we start today," She asked. Aaron saw the mask come up when she sat down in her seat and resisted the urge to snarl aloud. He hated that damned composed mask and wanted to rip her out from behind that frozen mask and make her look at him with something other than calm cool regard. He watched her carefully as they ate breakfast in silence, his gaze sliding over her just drinking her in, absorbing her. Aaron knew that he could look at her forever. Watching her he felt as though he was just beginning to wake up from a long sleep, a hibernation of sorts, from living. She made him feel all of the things that he'd once been instructed not to feel, and those feelings were what he now considered to be the things that had freed him from the program. It wasn't the senate committee, it wasn't the investigation, it wasn't the fact that the people who had made him into the closed off machine that he still partially was today, were dead or in Guantanamo, none of that had freed him from Outcome. It was her. He didn't know when it had happened, only that it had. It probably happened sometime when she'd infected him with the virus and he'd held her hand. Or maybe on the fishing junk leaving Manila, the day when he'd realized that her eyes held a sparkle that he'd never seen in a woman's eyes before. Somewhere in those few days it had happened. He'd fallen in love with her, even though everything he'd been indoctrinated with in Outcome told him that love was a weakness that made him vulnerable. Outcome had ruined a good portion of his life and put him on the run for almost three years, he pointed out to himself, so going against its training now wasn't a problem.

It took a while but by eight thirty they were on the mats in his basement. She was dressed in a set of workout clothes from the suitcase that she'd collected from her apartment after breakfast and put in his guest room in case she needed to stay there if anything happened with Peter. He'd given her a key to his home as well and programmed the number of his wrist watch pager into her phone. Marta on the other hand, just did as he told her, much like the way she'd followed his instructions to the letter when they'd been running. She didn't say much, she just went along with it and did her best to complete his instructions.

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"I've only taught you a few tactics, I know," Aaron said to his frustrated charge later that day, who was sitting on the floor glaring up at him after being thrown over his shoulder quite recently.

"How can I be expected to kick his ass if I can hardly get away from him? You aren't teaching me the good stuff!" She exclaimed rolling back to her feet. "Let's review: I know how to stay on my feet, wiggle out of every hold imaginable, but I still don't know how to beat him within an inch of his life!"

"You don't want to beat him with an inch of his life," He told her calmly.

"Actually, I do!" She snarled. Aaron bit back a laugh. Seeing her like this was like watching a kitten pretend to be a tiger. There wasn't a hope that he'd tell her that, however. He wouldn't survive the declaration if the violence she'd been training with was any indicator.

"Look if you only know a few select, versatile moves really well, they'll do you more good than a dozen moves that you struggle to remember. When we're done, this will be a second nature to you, understand?"

"Yes," She sighed. Grabbing a water bottle off the metal sports bench, she took a long drink.

"I'm just mad," She explained screwing the cap back on with more force than was necessary. "He has no right to play mind games with me. I've had enough of being chased. I want to fight back!"

Aaron wasn't sure how he felt about Marta fighting. It would make her feel better, but it would put him on edge. Fortunately, there was no way she'd be skilled enough to take on a grown man after a few training sessions.

"Come back over here, we have to work on the next part," He said instead of voicing his concern.

"Then next part," Marta gawked at him. "We've been at this for hours!"

"You know how to fight when you're on your feet and nothing has gone wrong. You need to know what to do if everything goes sideways and you end up on your back." He extended a hand to her, and pulled her to the ground with him when she took it, rolling twice so that she ended underneath him. He went through the motion quickly so that she was dizzy and unfocused when the motion was done.

"Whoa," She panted, staring up at him with wide eyes and gripping his biceps tightly. "What was that!?"

"A distractor move to throw you off your game and end up in this position so that I can force myself on you. What are you going to do about it?" Aaron demanded bracing himself imposingly over her. She went for his elbow with a block, trying to make him bend as he'd taught her, but he countered by leaning into her with his other shoulder, dropping his torso top of her and trapping her underneath his weight.

"Now, not only is there no way you can get out of this, I can touch you inappropriately as well," He said sliding his hands up her rib cage until his thumbs brushed the sides of her breasts , to emphasize his point. The motion of her swallowing was enough for him to know for certain that he'd driven the point home well enough.

"Fine what's the best way," Marta asked rolling her eyes hoping to hide her intense reaction to his closeness. Aaron moved back so that he was kneeling between her open legs. The position was so blatantly sexual that she had to focus not to blush.

"Don't use your upper body strength to get away. Stop him, and keep your arms straight. If you bend them I can simply lean forward and crush you again."_ If it was you crushing me I wouldn't mind so much_, Marta thought. Perturbed at the direction her thoughts were taking, Marta tried to focus on his face and nodded catching him with straight arms as he lunged forward at her again.

"Now that you have me blocked keep your left foot on the ground and roll to your side slightly so that you're on your right shoulder with your side flat against the ground. Now place your right foot on my hip. Good. Shift back to the center, slide your hands to my elbow to control my movements, and put your other foot on my other hip. Push. No, do it again and really push me, you won't hurt me. Catch me around the wrists when you push me away. Now you're your legs into your chest and start kicking me in the face," He instructed, turning his face away. She did so, careful not to clip him.

They worked on perfecting that move for some time until she began to feel the burn in her legs from kicking at him. Just when she was certain that they were done he decided to teach her another move. When she groaned Aaron launched into a lecture her about safety and the statistics that Peter had engaged in sexual fantasies about her. The sexual fantasies phrase pushed her back on the mat underneath him in their previous position quite quickly.

"The reality is that you might not be able to stop him from getting on top of you," he said flatly, not sparing her from the truth. "His natural instinct will be to choke you, because he doesn't have any training." His hands went around her throat gently. "Try to escape first, just so I can show you why what you've learned won't work." Automatically her hands went to his shoulders and she straightened her arms, expecting the maneuver to work. When she realized that he still had a hold of her neck, her eyes went wide.

"See? My arms are longer than yours, I'm bigger than you. Don't push at him; all it will do is give him the range he needs to start punching you in the face and pound you into submission." He moved back into position, leaning over her with his hands on either side of her. "Slide your arms up and in around the back of my head." She did as he asked. "This might be a bit awkward but control my head and bring it down into your chest, nice," He praised. Aaron bit the inside of his cheek as she held his face against her soft breasts. "Okay now wrap your legs around my hips, you don't want him to climb over you. Okay, slide your hands around so that your thumbs can dig into his eye sockets and now push my head up and drive your thumbs into my eye sockets, but please not literally. Thank you," He sighed. "If this really happens, remember that you're trying to blind your attacker, not just poking him in the eye."

She nodded. "Then control one of my arms like I taught you, there that's it. Let go of your legs around my hips, and do a scissors sweep. Good girl!" He grinned as she flipped him and landed on top of him.

"You have two options. One handed claw choke, or to beat me into submission…" Aaron was abruptly cut off when she went for the claw choke around his Adams apple. "Mercy, Mercy" He gasped catching her wrist. "Wow, you've gotten good at that claw choke," He commented, sucking in air.

"It was the one fun thing you taught me," Marta said still enjoying her position on top of him. He laughed and pulled her down into a hug.

"One more thing to remember: run and don't stop running until you're safe, got that?"

"Yes, sensei," She snorted. "That part is common sense."

"Good, now get off me," He said.

"Why should I do that?" She asked teasingly.

"So that I can get up," He retorted mock glaring.

"I don't think so, I like it here….ah!" She yelped when he bucked his hips. She fell forward and landed with her hands braced on either side of his head. He slid his arm around hers and forcing hers to buckle, throwing her seriously off balance and then twisted using his weight against her so that he landed on top of her.

"Huh. I see what you mean," He commented lazily sitting on her. "I like it here too. Think you can get me off?"

* * *

Their routine continued for almost two weeks. They practiced her self-defense every day early in the morning, keeping her sharp. Aaron would try different things attack from new angles and startle her when she'd just walked in the basement gym. All of it was driving her insane. He was particularly insistent on her grappling techniques and it was slowly driving her insane to be held against his body so intimately, for so long, every single day. She struggled to hide the arousal that the constant brush of their bodies brought. Being pulled flush against his hips, locking her legs around his waist, bringing his face down into her chest….it was all too much and she was being worn down quickly. Every day she mentally prepared herself, but it never worked always she'd leave with dampness between her legs and the places he'd touched her skin hot and burning. Her heart was pounding a frantic rhythm by the time he pressed his core flush against hers and leaned in so close and her efforts to stop her reaction were futile. Lust curled him her belly as she thought about him, even now. Luckily he hadn't seemed to notice her predicament, a fact that she felt both relieved and disappointed in. Would it really be so bad if he found out she was attracted to him? Aaron could never love her but that didn't mean he might not want something….more.

What Marta didn't know was that for all the oblivion he exhibited on the mats Aaron knew exactly what Marta's reaction to him was. Reading people was something he'd been trained to do and it wasn't difficult to read her, even when she tried to hide what she felt. Her mask was nearly perfect but what gave her away were her eyes. It wasn't really her fault that she had such expressive eyes but it was certainly to his benefit. He could see her pupils dilate as he slid into position over her, and felt her pelvic muscles clench as she wrapped her legs around him. He'd pushed it away at first, ignoring everything in him that screamed at him to respond and take advantage of that response immediately.

Those were just teenage boy responses that urged him to go after an extremely willing woman, he told himself firmly. He groaned aloud seeing the direction his thoughts were taking and dove into the swimming pool hoping that some laps might burn off his dangerous thoughts and the ache in his groin. But his mind circled back to the beautiful scientist soon enough. He wanted her, she wanted him. He could have her easily and he knew it, but something was holding him back. Amusement bubbled up inside of him. This hesitation was new- it was not something he'd ever felt before. It was her, she was different. He didn't want to seduce her with smooth practiced motions the way he had every woman before her: he wanted to give her a piece of himself. Who was he kidding? He had been fighting the urge to give her not a piece of himself, but all of the pieces. The pieces of humanity that he'd amazingly managed to keep intact over the years in the program that were hidden so deep his trainers and handlers had never seen them or suspected that they had existed. Those were just pieces though, he admonished himself. What woman would want the pieces of a broken man, when she could go find a whole man, who wasn't paranoid, angry and couldn't turn his emotions off on command?

His reactions to her had been going on for the better part of two years. It hadn't taken long for her to get under his skin with her silky hair, doe eyes and full mouth that he'd had more than one raunchy dream about. But she'd been having some raunchy dreams about him, too if her reaction to him was anything to go by. That reaction gave him hope. The last thing that he wanted was to lose her by pushing too hard, too fast, but he wasn't keen on waiting for very long now that he'd decided to chase her. Marta had no idea of the effect that she had no men, or the fantasies she was capable of putting in their heads with just a look from those soft eyes. He was no exception to the rule. After it was settled that no amount of laps was ever going to get her out of his head he grabbed a towel and headed indoors after quickly drying off and changing in the pool house.

Aaron knew that he wasn't going to escape these feelings. Their roots were too deep, the emotion too intense for him to ever get rid of them. She was inside of him, whether he wanted her to be or was comfortable with that or not, the fact remained that she was there. As uncomfortable as it was to be so deeply twined with someone for him, he knew that Marta represented life. A life that he hadn't thought he would ever get. Men like him ended up dead in alley ways, their life cut short by bullets, and no identification in their pockets. They didn't have homes, didn't own things that they couldn't leave behind and above all they didn't have emotional attachments. His eyes narrowed as he took a seat at his desk. Those were the rules, weren't they, the rules that were supposed to govern his life? Did they apply anymore? The people who'd taught him those rules were exterminated or rotting in a prison somewhere. They had tried to kill him for two years. They had tried to kill Jason Bourne for seven years, and Nicky Parsons for over four. If anything exempted you from the rules it was learning the people who had taught them to you had no morals. The rules, he was beginning to realize, were there to isolate him. Perhaps that had made him a better asset back then, but he wasn't an asset anymore. He'd received a huge government payout as an apology for what they'd done to him, damn it! Ingraining 'the rules' into him until they were a part of him was one of the things that they'd done to him to control him, he saw. The rules that they'd set up to govern his emotional life were nothing but a bunch of twisted psychology that had been used to isolate the assets from real people, so that they would never question their commitment to the program. _Screw the rules_, he decided angrily. Marta was the one thing that might save him. She wanted him badly, that much he knew. It was enough for him to start with. Only a few hours after he'd decided that his cell phone rang, and he answered without looking at the caller ID, distracted by research on a company he was considering purchasing.

"Hello," He answered.

"Hi, it's me," Marta replied nervously.

"What's going on?" He demanded as fear pierced his heart at her nervous tone. Something was very, very, wrong.

**Please Review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hello again, thank you for all the reviews, they've been wonderful. Here goes another chapter!**

**On another note****: I leave all the explicit details out of this chapter for concern that I might have younger readership and I wouldn't want to exclude them from reading this because of one steamy scene. With that in mind I posted the NC-17 portion of this chapter separately. If you want to read the steamy scene it's posted under the name Reunions to Remember, in the M rated section. **

Chapter 8

"What's going on?" He demanded, reaching in the drawer for his gun.

"Nothing much, it's just that Peter is waiting outside of my apartment building and there's no way that I can get past him." She sighed. "What do you want me to do?"

"Drive over here, I'll be waiting for you. If you don't get here in eight minutes, I'm coming after you, understood?"

"Eight minutes!"

"Put the pedal to the metal, sweetheart." In the background he heard the engine swell, and smiled appreciatively.

"This is so illegal," She muttered into to the cell phone.

"So is him stalking you, so tit for tat, where are you now?"

"Coming up on the intersection of the highway," She reported into her phone.

The longest eight minutes of his life passed with painful slowness that set him frighteningly on edge. He kept tabs on Marta with the cell phone to reassure himself and paced in the foyer, the gun in a tight grip as he listened to the sound of her breath in the phone. When she turned down his street he stepped outside and watched her pull in the driveway, striding over to open the car door before she'd cut the engine.

"Are you alright," He demanded urgently.

"Yes, I'm fine," She answered softly. He could tell that she was frightened. Wrapping an arm tightly around his waist, he walked her up the steps and into the house. His heart didn't stop pounding thunderously in his chest until she was sitting stiffly on the couch with the hot cup of tea that he'd brought her and he was certain that she was safe. Her chin was tucked against her chest and she seemed very pensive.

"You're safe," Aaron said, taking the tea from her and deposited it on the coffee table. He pulled her against his chest and tucked an arm tightly around her shoulders. He ignored the way she tried to pull away, knowing that if he let her go, the mask would come up. She melted into him after the initial resistance and hugged him to her letting out a shuddering breath.

"I know. Thank you, I don't know what I would have done without you," She said into his chest.

He didn't answer that, but grimaced above her, having a good idea what the fall out could have been like. After she'd been successfully avoiding him for two weeks with no major incidents this Peter guy would be inching closer wanting to start the game back up. She looked up at him with an expression that he couldn't quite classify on her face, but it was gone in a second and he wondered if it had even been there at all. Before he could process what she was doing, her mouth covered his. It was only a soft brush but it gave him a delicious taste of how soft her lips were. He should have known that the kiss would never end there, not with the passionate fire burning between them. He automatically pulled her across the breadth separating them so that she was straddling him and his hands sank into her hair tilting her head back to give him better access to her mouth. He kissed her softly at first, nibbling gently on her lip brushing their tongues together in a slow dance. But the heat of their chemistry eventually over took him until the flames crackled around them and the kiss turned desperate. They'd ignited a wildfire, he realized hazily. She melted into him a little more and he completely lost himself in the kiss. He tried not to be rough but it was a losing battle and his mouth had a mind of its own. Marta robbed him of his senses going to his head like fine wine. Then what he was doing sank in and he jerked away.

"This isn't a good idea, Marta. I'm taking advantage of you." His breath came out in pants and his hands wouldn't stop moving over her back caressing bare skin where he'd tugged up her shirt. Their foreheads rested together as each gasped for air.

"Please, Aaron. Please don't deny me. This is the only thing that can shut off my brain. I don't think when we're like this, I only feel. I need this; you aren't taking advantage of me." She begged sliding her arms around his neck.

"I won't let you go, Marta," He said softly, a dark look sliding over his face. "You and I won't just be a one night stand; I'm not a pretty distraction that will go away."

"I understand, Aaron I want this," She said.

Aaron took a moment to look consider what they were doing. This, he realized suddenly, was his opening. It was where he made his move to integrate himself into her life. He was going to take it. Catching one arm under her legs he picked her up and carried her up the staircase to his bed room.

* * *

Aaron woke slowly the next morning, feeling Marta lying draped over his chest. At some point during the night she'd shifted and draped one leg over his hips and curled into his chest. He could like this position he thought pensively, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear as he observed her in the soft early morning light.

Aaron knew that he didn't deserve a woman like Marta. There wasn't much good left in him, but he was willing to give her what was left. She didn't know that she'd sealed her fate by making love to him the night before, but not understanding her actions didn't exempt her from their consequences. I should save that for later, it might scare her, he elected. He felt her begin to stir on his chest and smiled when she sighed and rubbed herself against him like a kitten, her hands kneading his chest softly.

"Good morning," He said, running a hand down her back following the line of her spine.

"Good morning," She sighed against his chest. Slowly she became aware of her surroundings, trying to shake off the sleep that urged her to pillow back against his chest and fall into a deep sleep, but she knew that she would have to get to work eventually. Coming aware of her position, curled into his chest with one leg wrapped tightly around his waist, she gulped as discomfort settled in and a blush stole over her face. As last night came back into focus, the blush deepened and she felt the soreness in places that she'd never known could be sore. Explicit memories came back to her and she felt herself respond to the feeling of his body pressed against hers. Urgently she untangled their limbs and scooted over so that she wasn't invading his personal space and she began to feel infinitely more comfortable once there.

Aaron watched her become unsure of him, untangling herself from him, and scooting a few inches over. If that mask came up again, he was initiating round two, he decided fiercely. She still had the tousled look of a woman who'd had a very pleasurable night and he intended to see her like that more often in the coming future.

"Don't pull away from me now, darling," Aaron drawled rolling to his side and taking her hand in his and dropping a tender kiss on to the back of it, but giving her a limited amount of space. If she needed space, she could have it, but he wasn't about to let her forget that he was there altogether. He pulled her arm against his chest and ran his fingers over the inside of her wrist and nuzzled it, planting a light kiss at the joint of her hand.

"Tell me what you're thinking," He ordered as he stopped playing with her arm.

"I'm wondering what this means, and what it should mean," She confessed turning back into him, facing him and taking back her wrist. She knew that if she let him keep doing things like that to her they'd end up burning up the sheets again.

"It means that you and I are definitely more than friends," He said in a flat tone that left no room for argument. "I'll let you put whatever label on it that you're comfortable with, but don't try to push me out, because I'll be happy to push back, darling." It was both a threat and a promise that no matter what he would be there for her, no matter what happened.

"So we're lovers, boyfriend girlfriend, what?" She asked her eyebrows drawing together. Her heart sang with joy at the prospect of being in a relationship with him, but her brain ordered her to stay practical and protect herself. She couldn't force him into anything. Never mind what she was comfortable with, what was he comfortable with. After last night, Marta knew that there was no way that any other man could compare to him, and she couldn't even think of touching anyone again but him.

"Well, we're definitely lovers after last night!" He smirked at her flushed cheeks and laughed. "Don't be embarrassed, sweetheart. Tell me," He coaxed cuddling up against her.

"I'm still surprised…I didn't expect…..I've never," She cut off there not sure how to explain to him what she was feeling.

"Don't be afraid, just because we're intense. It may have scared you but we'll figure this out together. Also I don't mean to cut this conversation short but, its seven thirty and I know that you have to be to work in an hour…."

"Oh, no!" Marta exclaimed.

He smiled as she darted into the bathroom to clean up. Raiding the guest room he found her clothes in the dresser and left them on the bed knowing that she'd find them. Downstairs he cut up some fruit and put it in a container knowing that she'd have to eat in the car. Going about these domestic activates, taking care of his girlfriend made his heart skip a few beats. To anyone else they would seem boring and mindless, but he loved them just because they were the one thing that he'd never thought he could have. Taking back his life had been his goal when they'd been on the run; it had been his goal when he'd contacted Landy, when he'd testified against the CIA and when he'd left after the trial.

Now he realized what other people meant when they talked about their lives, and the importance of their relationships. Aaron had thought that people were just being dramatic when they said that their significant other was 'their whole life' or 'their better half'. It was true, all of the stories. He thought back on the conversation he'd had with Marta in bed that morning as he waited by the door and frowned. In giving her the power to label them, he'd given her the opportunity to label them friends with benefits or something equally loose in definition. That would never do. He couldn't live with her seeing another man. For the first time in his life, Aaron Cross experienced black jealousy, as the image of her doing what they'd been doing the previous night with anyone other than him took hold in his mind. The emotion shook him descending like a herd of wild horses into his mind, surprising him with its intensity. He didn't usually acknowledge emotion, but he couldn't escape this one. It was still in his mind when she came down the stairs freshly dressed but looking harried.

"Thank you," She gasped when she saw the food in his hand. Gratefully she took it, desperately needing the energy after the long night.

"One more thing before you take off. I'm taking back what I said earlier." He stepped closer, lightly resting his hands on her waist.

"Um…which part," She asked tilting her head back to look into his eyes, now nervous. Maybe he'd changed his mind and only wanted to be friends again. If that was the case she didn't know if she'd be able to handle that. All the things she was feeling were too intense for her to stop them, especially after the passionate night they'd shared.

"I'm not going to let you label us. We're in a monogamous relationship. I won't have you starting a relationship with another man. If you do, you're putting his life at serious risk."

"So then you're my boyfriend?"

"Yes," she understood, that was good.

She stood on her tip toes and kissed him with passion, trying to convey to him how much that meant to her. Aaron cleared his throat slightly- it hadn't been the response he'd expected.

"I take it you agree?" He asked gruffly.

"Yes. I've got it monogamy, no third party involvement, all understood. And I really have to run, thank you so much for the food!"

He shook his head and laughed as she darted out the door. Things were going better than he'd expected. She'd agreed to a relationship with him- nothing short of a miracle! Aaron closed the door behind her with a satisfied smile.

Outside, Peter Boyd did not think that Marta and this strange man were a miracle. No this strange man was his worst nightmare. His girlfriend was cheating on him! The binoculars that he'd been using to watch her over the past week had come in very handy last night when he hadn't been able to sneak up to the house. The picture he'd seen through them was ugly, though. She'd practically thrown herself at him! Through the window he had watched in horror and disbelief as she undid the buttons on the man's shirt and he tugged hers up to caress her back. It made him feel physically sick. Perhaps this is what he got for not being a good boyfriend to her, but he still loved her. They hadn't seen each other in a while, but did that let her go off and sleep around?

He'd had to resort to the phone tap he'd put in her cell phone last week when she'd dropped it at a restaurant. Planting the bug in her phone had been easy enough and better yet, it wasn't likely that she knew it was there. She hadn't even seen him, because he'd given the phone to the hostess. He felt a burning hatred for both her and the man that even the memory of the successful phone tapping couldn't curb. The guy had everything Peter didn't: a muscular body, good looks, and money. He glared at the house the next morning, still waiting outside. He watched Marta leave and then the man came out dressed in running clothes and began to head down the street. What was he going to do, Peter wondered as he watched the man. Fear coursed through him at the thought of losing his Marta to the man. Something had to be done, and it had to be done right now.

**Yeah, I do love cliff hangers. They make you review, and that makes my day. All feedback, evaluations, corrections, or whatever you want to tell me is always appreciated. Knowing that you're reading keeps me going. I'll update soon!**

**Please review.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: This chapter is a bit shorter than I usually write, but I'm working on the next chapter and I'll try to update midweek.**

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Chapter 9

After Marta left for work, Aaron headed out to the pool to get in a swim. It seemed unreal. She liked the idea of dating him, not just accepted it. As a matter of fact she'd seemed enthusiastic, happy. He could hardly believe his luck. But he knew from experience it wouldn't serve him well to get so caught up in the elated feeling coursing through him to ignore the blackness that was swirling around them. Her ex was very dangerous, and he'd be wound tighter than ever after he'd seen her speed away from her apartment last night. Now was a tense time, not a celebration. Boyd would be on edge, willing to try anything. In his mind he was connected to Marta, nothing could change that. Hanging around outside her apartment building had been a clear threat. It also showed that he probably knew her schedule, if he'd been there just when she'd gotten off work. Still contemplating the likelihood that Boyd had been following her Aaron changed into his jogging clothes and headed out to the street.

Aaron went over the facts in his mind as he jogged. Peter had found her new apartment. He'd been outside her apartment at six thirty. He'd known, or assumed that Marta would be home when he showed up pounding on her door the day that Aaron had gotten back. The last piece of damning evidence was that he'd known to show up to her apartment when she'd been on her way out. From his research Aaron had a bit of a back ground on Peter Boyd. Boyd clearly had above average intelligence, had multiple degrees but didn't live up to his potential, rejecting several well-funded projects because of personal problems with his boss on several occasions. He could have tapped her phone if he was that smart, and knew about her activates through that method. Was it her cell phone or her land line? It would have to be her cell phone, if either was actually tapped. A cell phone was much easier to tap than a land line, and with the security system she had it would be very difficult- likely impossible- to gain access to her landline. He glanced at the reflection of his street in the door of a car parked and made note of a beat up Toyota Corolla pulling out from the curb. He continued to Rock Creek Park and headed to the running paths. When he saw the corolla pull up to the park, he immediately started tracking it in his peripheral vision. It came to a stop and the driver, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, exited.

Continuing to run at the same pace Aaron scanned his surroundings for any back up that the man might have lurking and headed off on one of the more secluded running paths. The man saw his decision and started walking towards a grove of trees where the trail winded back around to at its end. So, he was about to get jumped at the end of his run. It wasn't a bad plan, and if he'd been anyone else it might have had a chance of working. Curiosity had snuck up on him as he headed out, ignoring the company in the trees. The person wasn't a threat. He'd decided that when the man had followed him so blatantly and he confirmed it when the man had gotten out of the car with weak posture and proceeded to trip his way across the grass and roots, unaccustomed to nature. The miles slipped by and he neared the groove of trees where the man had positioned himself.

_There's probably a reporter hiding in there wanting a story_, he thought. Slowing his pace marginally he made sure that he was an easy target for the reporter to jump out in front of. The figure snapped a branch and alerted Aaron to his presence as he came barreling out on to the path in front of him. Aaron tackled the man to the ground slamming him into the dirt with a brutal amount of force. _Never again will a reporter interrupt my morning jog after this gets out_, He promised himself angry over the blatant invasion of privacy.

"Hey!" The man protested underneath him wiggling desperately and swinging at him wildly.

"Who are you," He snarled down at the man catching his wrists and forcing him to stay still.

"I'm the boyfriend of the girl you slept with last night!" He shouted indignantly. _Oh, this was bad_, Aaron thought, realizing who had been waiting for him in the woods. At the same time he realized that Peter Boyd had followed Marta to his house last night and had peeped in on them while they'd been engaged in some very private activates. The thought he the man sneaking around outside his house and watching them made his blood boil and pound harshly in his ears and rage twisted deep in his gut, making him see red. Finding his control took all of his strength, but it was necessary. Once he was firmly in control he replied.

"Marta doesn't have a boyfriend," He growled, hardly recognizing his own voice.

"Yes she does," Boyd screamed, clearly deranged. "She and I are going through a rough patch and you can't just cut in! Don't men have respect for each other anymore?"

"You and Marta have been finished for more than two years, Boyd! You want to talk respect? Respect that, and don't come near her ever again!"

"I won't respect anything to do with you, you lying, cheating, filthy…"

A saner man would have seen the blow coming before it hit. Peter however, had been too caught up with calling Aaron every name in the book to notice the man's fist draw back and the knockout punch come crashing down on his jaw. The punch came with such force that it rocked his brain in his skull, causing the frontal lobe push up back against his skull and stunned his brain into shutting down. He stared down at what he'd done, nearly as stunned as the man under him. _That was stupid_, Aaron cursed himself. Pealing back Boyd's eyelids he checked to see that the pupils were even. A punch to the face with that much force could have killed him. He tried to feel bad about that knowing that a normal person would. He then removed his cell phone and dialed to police, aware that for all the inconvenience the fiasco here would be, a police report and arrest was essential to establish what Peter Boyd was capable of.

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**A/N: So as mentioned in your reviews, I had Peter and Aaron tangle. What did you think? All your reviews thus far have been appreciated and I love all reviews. Simply love them.**

**Please Review.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: I appreciate the reviews I've gotten. I'm over half way through, and I decided that I have enough room to put in a chapter exploring Marta's emotions. It's much longer than the one before, I'm trying to make up. **

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Chapter 10

"You did what!?" Marta was looking at him with an expression of such horror that Aaron nearly groaned aloud. It had been a very long day, he reflected. One thing after another today wasn't it? He'd started the day with a difficult conversation with Marta and that had ended very well. There would be very few moments that would ever match what he'd felt in the moment Marta kissed him and smiled when he'd declared their monogamy. That moment was the only good thing about this day, he mentally grumbled, knowing all the while that he'd had much worse days than this one, but not really caring. This was the day that was happening and this was the day that counted, he didn't care how many other bad days he'd had in the past.

There had been the mess with Boyd on his morning run, then dealing with the police, the paper work, red tape, annoying minor bureaucrats that he didn't dare tick off for knowing the problems they could cause. That mess had lasted him until noon. After all that he'd gotten home to discover a disaster in one of his companies that called for an emergency board meeting of his entire staff in Annapolis. He made a mental note not to buy another financial planning business that was so run in. _Or one forty miles away_, he thought. When he'd finally sorted out that mess he'd come home to find his girlfriend of ten hours piping mad over the fact that he'd gotten Boyd thrown in jail for assaulting him.

"Are you listening to me?!" Marta exclaimed angrily. It was too late to be having this argument, but he wasn't about to tell her that with the look on her face. No, she was a very dangerous foe right now.

"Yes, I was, you're mad that I pressed charges on your extremely dangerous ex-boyfriend who's been following you around with binoculars and watching your every move for what two three months now? Beyond that you're furious that I punched him in the face. Well he deserved it, and I enjoyed the action very much," Aaron snapped. We started dating this morning and we're in our first fight the same night, He mused grimly. Perhaps he should ask her if they were moving too fast. It wasn't like he was a dating expert but wasn't there usually a honeymoon period before a couple starts to fight?

"Yes, good, you're listening! Even if you don't understand where I'm coming from," Marta sighed sitting down at the kitchen table, breaking from her pacing, ranting tirade.

"No you're wrong there. I do understand," He said even as he saw her hackles rise. "Hey, you said what you wanted to, I understood it, now I'm going to say what I want to say. You two were close. You lived together, and you cared about him. To some extent you still do, because of the level of intimacy that you two shared. Even now when he's threatening your safety, stalking you, and watching us make love through the windows of this house, you refuse to press charges against him because of those lingering emotions. I don't. He came at me. Stop of a second and imagine what I would have done to him if I'd been taken by surprise." Seeing her brows come together slightly told him that she was getting the gruesome picture. "He's lucky to be alive. When he told me that you were still in a relationship with him, I lost it, and I broke his face. I don't think that I can be blamed for having a snap in control after all that he's done to you and by extension, to me." She looked much like she had after he'd shown her the video of her and Boyd's confrontation two weeks ago and he reminded himself that he needed to get her to see this man as her enemy, as much as it hurt her. Peter Boyd wasn't the same man that she'd known a few years ago. "You're doing the same thing that you did when the guy showed up your apartment and jerked you around, you're denying it. You don't think that he'll hurt you, or anyone. That thinking might get you killed and darling, I won't stand for it."

"Fine, maybe you're right," Marta conceded looking defeated and tired as she ran her hand through her hair.

"He's unbalanced, Honey, I'm sorry, but he is and I can't let you put yourself in danger by not acknowledging it."

Across the table from him she nodded feeling drained and exhausted. I desperately need some distance to work through everything that's happened, Marta decided swiftly.

"I have to go," She announced grabbing her bag from the table and heading to the door.

"Wait, what? Why don't stay here tonight?" Aaron asked, adding "You stayed here last night."

"I know but I need some sleep. What we do together is not sleeping," She explained fishing around in her bag searching for her car keys.

"I think I can keep my hands to myself," Aaron protested crossing his arms over his chest.

"You can, but it isn't exactly you that I'm worried about," Marta said blushing. _When will I get these flirting games down_, she bemoaned herself knowing that the blush wasn't the most sophisticated thing in the world. Glancing up through her lashes she suddenly felt uncertain. She hadn't felt it before. Right up until she'd found out that Peter had been arrested from a mutual collage, she'd been nearly walking on air only anchored by the fact that he wasn't in love with her. That tiny fact about his lack of love kept popping up again and again, spoiling her fantasies of them staying together. It was so easy to let herself believe that he could love her when she thought about the night they'd shared, and the way that he always acted when they were together, but she couldn't fall into that pit. If she did she knew that she would never get out in one piece. The only place that thinking like that would take her was to brokenheartsville. She snuck another glance at him through her lashes as she found her keys and pulled them out of her purse, trying to judge his reaction to fiasco the night had been. Some men she knew would break up with their girlfriends after a row like that one.

Aaron saw the uncertainty in her eyes and caught her chin tilting her face up to his and pressing a kiss to her mouth. There was nothing sexual or passionate about the kiss he gave. It was soft, tender and loving filled with all the reassurance that he had to give. What had bothered her he didn't know, but when he lifted his head from the kiss the look was gone replaced by happiness, and he considered it fixed.

"Drive home safe, honey," He murmured gently and watched as she headed out to her car. He tried not to feel lonely when she left but he wasn't super human. Instead he went upstairs to the attic and decided to distract himself with work.

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Once she was home Marta groaned and kicked off her heels wanting to kill whoever invented them. She put on a kettle of hot water, hoping that some tea would calm her down so that she could get some sleep. If her nerves were ever shot it was now. Dropping into a chair she laid her head down in her hands and started thinking critically about her turbulent day. She thought about Peter, his arrest, his fight with Aaron, the things that she and Aaron had said to each other during their fight but most of all her relationship with Aaron. Her mind kept coming back to Aaron. Him never loving her was a fact and as much as she struggled with it, she knew it and accepted it. You couldn't change what had been done to them, all the psychologists said. They'd been irreparably damaged, not just by their training but by the things they'd seen and done. Her heart throbbed for him, as it always did when she thought too hard about everything that he'd been through.

She still hadn't entirely rid herself of the guilt that she carried over being part of that program. Had the science been that appealing? So much so that she couldn't see past it and into the deception that surrounded her? Why had she ever believed that they'd just been testing these men based on the injuries they came back with? She wasn't stupid, she should have out two and two together. Worse were the nightmares about the shooting and the agents that had come to her house to kill her. In her nightmares Aaron didn't show up in time to save her, or she died looking in to the insane eyes of her former college, bleeding out in the most painful of ways, unable to look away as he put the gun to his temple ready to end it all. The tea kettle whistle blew and she made herself drink a soothing cup of green tea and relax, trying hard to shut her mind down for sleep. The lack of sleep and the stress she'd been under soon took over and she fell asleep even before her head hit the pillow.

Thursday morning was a much brighter day than she'd expected and she allowed herself to sleep until ten o clock, enjoying the added rest. At ten thirty her mother called just as Marta was stepping out of shower. It was normal for her mother to call on a day that she knew Marta didn't have to work, just to catch up, but there was no way that her mother could know that she didn't have to work today. The call meant that something was up. Something to do with her life and it was driving her crazy to make small talk while she waited for her mother to launch her attack. The usual information was exchanged between them. Eliza was doing well. She'd gone on another aide mission to Cambodia, nothing new there; her sister was always dedicating her time to some medical aid program as a thoracic surgeon. Marta didn't know how Eliza could handle all that blood and guts; she never could have done it. A clinical approach to medicine was much more her speed and yes, mother work was going well. Please don't ask about my personal life, she prayed.

"So who's this man you've been seeing," Her mother announced eagerly catching Marta off guard.

"I'm sorry who?" She asked wondering what on earth her mother was talking about.

"The man has green eyes, light brown hair just over six feet, excellent posture with stunning good looks I might add. I've got a picture of you and him getting cozy in a coffee shop."

"MOTHER!" Marta exclaimed, horrified. "What do you have the paparazzi following me now, like I'm Kim Kardashian or something?"

"No, no dear nothing like that! Do you remember Regina Appleman who lived two houses down from us when we lived in Reston?"

"Yes," She said, not understanding.

"Well she was across the street checking out a new boutique and she saw the two of you. She even was kind enough to send me a picture on her mobile phone! Are those little cell phones so nifty?"

While her mother went on about the marvels of a cell phone that she'd just upgraded to Marta bemoaned the fact that her mother probably had friends all over this town that could spy on her. It was amazing that she didn't already have his name, date of birth and credit card information.

"So who is he!" She prodded at her daughter, determined to find out who the mystery man was.

"Aaron Cross."

"Oh!" There was long pause. "Are you….. dating an assassin? Oh, honey I don't know if that's such a good idea. Don't they have psychological problems? That's what they said on the news. Those poor men have violent tendencies and desensitization. I don't want to tell you what to do….." Melinda Shearing trailed off. "Is this some knight in shining armor sort of thing?"

"No, mother. I know Aaron very, very well. Yes some of the operatives had psychological problems like Jason Bourne and some of the Black briar agents, but Outcome was different and violent tendencies? Mother that isn't the problem at all! They have them so wound up that they can't feel anything anymore. They hardly have emotions. I don't know if I can break down the walls that he's got up."

"Oh dear," the older woman sighed. In Southern Florida she swirled her feet in the water where she sat perched on the steps of her dock. My poor daughter, she thought, reflecting on all that she'd been put through in the past couple of years. A strangled sob of Marta's came through the line of her cell phone, and it struck her.

"You're in love with him." Melinda knew it intuitively in the same way she'd known when she'd been in love with Marta's father.

"I am, Mom, but there's no way that he can ever love me back. It's not fair," She cried in anguish.

It tore her heart out to hear her daughter cry it always had, and chances were that it always would.

"No, it's not fair," She agreed gently, thinking sadly about the man her daughter loved. Her mind turned back to the times she'd seen him in court and on television. Had he really seemed that removed as Marta claimed he was? She'd only met him face to face once and only for a minute, to tell him how grateful she was that he'd saved her daughter. He'd acted sincere then, accepting with an amount of chagrin, surprised by her gratitude. _There is no way that he doesn't feel things,_ Melinda decided firmly._ It isn't humanly possible, something must get through to him. If I was going to bet money I'd bet that he loves her as much as she love him._

"What about those coffee shop dates?" Her mother asked.

"We were actually just getting caught up after he'd returned from a trip to Africa. But things sort of escalated from there. I didn't think that he wanted anything more than friendship but a few nights ago…well, we're dating now."

Mercifully, her daughter left out the details of what that night had entailed but Melinda was perceptive enough of her daughter and well versed enough in modern romances to have a good idea what had gone on.

"I see, and who initiated the dating?" She asked, probing for evidence to support her theory about Aaron's love.

"Well he did but I got the impression that he just doesn't want me seeing other men so he suggested monogamy."

"Well if he wants to keep you all to himself, then I'd say that's an emotion."

"Or he's just a territorial male, like most of them are."

"No one can just be devoid of emotion Marta," Melinda protested.

"Aaron can."

"Hmmm." Melinda wasn't buying that for a second. The dating proposition of his had sealed the deal; they were both sunk now all she had to do was sit back and wait. A smile spread over her face and she could just tell that everything would work out.

"What's with the hmmm, Mom?"

"Nothing just thinking. I have a bridge game with some of the garden club ladies in about twenty minutes, so I'd better be going." Back in Washington D.C Marta rolled her eyes knowing her mother was going to lose the bridge game but would enjoy it anyways.

"I'll let you go, Mom. Thanks for listening to me cry and blubber."

"Of course sweetie, that's what I'm here for!" Melinda protested, pulling her feet out of the water.

"Well, thanks anyways. Tell Eliza that I love her when she calls."

A few seconds later she hung up the phone and gave her mother's words about Aaron's emotions some thought. Quickly she dismissed them, knowing that they were foolish. It wouldn't do to get too wrapped up in this relationship, because all that Aaron would want would be simple, casual and uncomplicated. She wanted a full relationship in which everything was shared and committed, he didn't. All he wanted was to have her all to himself without the threat of competition, so that he'd have access to her at any time he wanted her._ It would be best if I could get some distance between us_, Marta thought. _I have to make sure my own emotions are in check before I can see him again. _

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**Please Review.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Thank you for the lovely reviews, both to this story and to the other smutty chapter I posted separately. The reviews hit a low point for the last two chapters and it was refreshing to see the reviews sitting in my inbox this afternoon. Thank you. **

**I think I forgot to put this in, but I think I need to put it in at least once. I do not own the Bourne Series, both the films and the books belong to people who are not me. But if they want to sell….well I'm available.**

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Chapter 11

A strong callused hand covered her mouth, jerking her out of a deep sleep. Terror coursed through her veins as she realized that someone was in her bedroom pinning her down. She squirmed desperately underneath him and wiggled, trying to scream. Then recognition broke through as she recognized the face staring down at her and she stopped wiggling to glare ferociously at the man holding her down.

"Damn it Aaron you scared the life out of me!" She gasped sitting bolt upright in bed once he removed his hand. "What good is a security system if it can't keep people out?"

"You security system is fine, it just wasn't designed to keep men like me out. Also you haven't answered my calls or seen me in five days. I was worried."

"Why did you come here in the middle of the night and try to smother me?!" She demanded angrily.

"I needed to see you and there was a slim possibility that you wanted to see me, so I broke in. If you'd answered your phone, e-mail or text messages I wouldn't have had to resort to such... extreme methods."

"Well, maybe I thought that we both might need some space after we got into it did that occur to you?"

"Yes. That's why I'm here," Aaron retorted giving her a smoldering look.

"Um… this is the exact opposite of giving me space," Marta pointed out, clutching the sheet to her chest to cover her skimpy pajamas.

"I've given you five days of space, and I couldn't wait any more," Aaron pointed out running his fingertips up her arm and cupping her shoulder. "I'd put on some clothes if you don't want to tempt me any further, and meet me in the kitchen if you want to resolve this."

"Put on the tea kettle," Marta called as he left the room.

She snagged a silk robe off the dresser and slipped it on belting it around her waist. She checked in the mirror to make sure that she was appropriately covered and then reluctantly left the safety of her bedroom. Making her way into the kitchen she wondered if she was over playing her hand by acting like she was still angry and needed space. That wasn't the case at all. She was just trying to get her emotions in check so that she didn't spontaneously confess her love for him. She stopped outside the kitchen to take a deep cleansing breath and carefully reminded herself that such a mistake would be an emotional catastrophe for both of them. Entering the kitchen Marta sat down at the kitchen table and waited nervously for him to finish making the cup of tea for her.

"It might seem like I'm mad at you but really, Aaron I'm not. I just needed space. We went from friends to a relationship in the course of a few hours," Marta explained accepting the cup of tea that he handed her. How had he made it in the space of a minute? _He's been here for a while_, she realized her eyes narrowing as she looked into her tea.

"I understand that, I do. I'm here because I wasn't going to let you run away and because Peter Boyd was released from prison about an hour ago," Aaron said flatly sparing her nothing. He had enough factors working against him: he didn't want to jeopardize his relationship with her by lying to her. That didn't make it hurt less any when she paled and looked at him nervously, her knuckles turning white when she tightened her grip on the handle of her mug.

"Oh. I see," She commented, her voice trembling. Refusing to be trapped by Peter's game she looked for something else to focus on and her eyes slid back to Aaron. "We need to talk, don't we? Let's just forget Peter for a bit, and focus on us." It felt really good to say us, and mean it in terms of a relationship.

"That might be best. I don't want to lose you because you're scared of the speed that our relationship is going. Don't you think it's natural that we skipped the getting to know you phase? Our getting to know you phase consisted of two years on the run trying to stay alive. We didn't need one."

"I came to a similar conclusion," She confessed. It wasn't a lie, she'd come to that conclusion a few hours after the call from her mother. It was the worry that she wanted more than he could give that held her back from picking up the phone to call him. On the other side of the kitchen she didn't know that the man leaning against her counter top was having the same fears about her._ It doesn't matter though_, he thought pushing away the fear._ I've given her the last pieces of humanity in my soul. I have to keep her because if I lose her I lose those pieces. I just have to be sure that she doesn't feel trapped or smothered because I feel too much for her_. He couldn't bear the thought of losing her as it weighed heavier and heavier on his mind until he felt crushed. Anything she wanted, anything she needed that's what he would be, so long as she stayed with him. Standing across the room he was slowly becoming a desperate man as he watched her fiddle with her tea while these thoughts swirled in his mind.

"Marta, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me.," He tried to explain. "You make me about as normal as I'll ever get to be again. I don't know if you understand what I mean," He cut off sharply, annoyed at the way that he couldn't properly express what he was feeling. It was working though he could see, as her head came up sharply and she looked at him surprised.

"I thought that I was…" She stopped, humiliated by the confession she'd been about to make.

"What did you think?" He demanded crossing to crouch in front of her chair. Marta looked at him nervously but swallowed and found the strength to confess her silly insecurities.

"I thought that I might want more out of the relationship than you did and I didn't want to push you, in case you decided that our causal relationship was too much work and you weren't interested anymore," She said in a rush. It wasn't fair for him to be able look up at her with such a tender look and make her want to spill every worry about her reservations over their relationship. When she was finished, she wanted to curl into his arms while he told her that she was wrong and that he loved her more than anything in the world. That was a pipe dream, a ludicrous fantasy, so she just stayed silent as he took her hands in his. _If I ever tried to balance on the balls of my feet like that I'd fall flat on my face_, Marta thought distractedly admiring his catlike balance.

"I think you've got things switched around," He confessed. "Maybe you didn't hear what I just said, but I did just confess a few seconds ago that you make me human again, and that you're the best thing I've ever had. I mean that, honey. Men like me aren't supposed to get chances with women like you, Marta. Men like me aren't even supposed to live very long or come out of what we went through alive. We're supposed to die when the order is given and we've reached our limit for use. So when you wanted to use me to escape your problems that night last week I happily went along with it because I knew it would probably be the only opening I'd ever have to make you mine."

"You paint this picture like I'm the one that's doing the saving. Like you're the one that needs me when it's always been the other way around. I've been nothing but a burden to you. You've had to protect me from the CIA and my violent stalker! It doesn't do much for my self-esteem." Aaron started laughing in earnest and rose from his crouch to pull out the other chair. Seating himself in front of her, he leaned forward and took her hands in his larger ones again. He gave one last dry laugh and shook his head as though what she'd said was funny.

"You saved my life, Marta. My brain would have been dripping out my nose if it hadn't been for you. I'd be dead and you'd be dead. As for your stalker, I wish that I'd slit Boyd's throat in the woods, just so that you'd be rid of him. Don't give me that reproachful look; I never would have actually done it. There was too much evidence that might lead back to me. He's stalking my girlfriend, it's a good motive to kill even a rookie cop would know that."

Marta smiled and shook her head. "I'm glad you didn't kill him, the investigation would have really sucked," she whispered softly.

"Are we good?" He asked her, needing to know that she'd accepted him back into her life. The last five days had been an agonizing form of torture he hoped that he'd never have to endure again.

"Yes. We're better than good. Thank you, Aaron" She said and kissed him soundly on the mouth. His hands sank into her hair and he loped it around his wrist using it to tilt her head back and slide his tongue into her mouth. Slipping an arm underneath her knees he lifted her out of the chair and headed for her bedroom.

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**To the guest who recommended that I put in a flashback: I'm working on it! Did you have anything in mind?**

**Tell me what you thought of this chapter by reviewing, please. **


	12. Chapter 12

**Thank you so much for the kind reviews. Guest, your review has been answered and be sure to give me your opinion on it. Did I do Marta's thought's justice? I up the ante in this chapter, so enjoy!**

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Chapter 12

He cared about her. He didn't want her for a casual roll in the hay and that about as close as Marta would ever get to him to loving her. It was enough, she decided, as she lay watching him sleep at his place a few weeks later. Her love would have to be enough for both of them. He wanted her and no one else, it was something to work with, at the very least. She made him as whole as he could ever hope to be, and that would be enough.

"You're staring at me," Aaron stated sleepily alerting her that he was awake.

"Yes I am. I have a right to," She informed him, shamelessly staring.

"Hmmmm. Yes I guess you do," His eyes slit open and he looked at her, catching a lock of silky hair between his fingers. "Come here and warm me up," He said shifting so that she could lie on his chest.

"It's only October," She said obliging happily.

"Imagine how much warming up I'll need in January," He said sounding as though he was looking forward to the occasion.

"How did you ever make it through your training in Alaska?" Marta asked teasing him softly as she curled into his side.

"I thought about you, and it warmed me up," Aaron said leering down at her.

"You're kidding," Marta protested even though the idea had a huge smile planted on her face which she couldn't fight off to look appropriately offended.

"Not at all," Aaron told her with a smirk. "If you didn't notice the way that I acted in the lab, then Doc,"

"I noticed!" Marta protested before he could start in on her observation skills. "You were very handsome and politely leering but I remained completely professional and believe me it was not easy!"

"Mmmm….completely professional? Really? Because the day after you told me we were being filmed in there I hacked the feed from the wifi uplink and guess what? You touched me more than you touched anyone else."

"You hacked the Wifi uplink? I don't even know what a wifi uplink is! You spied on me that should be creepy."

"Should be but you're struggling not to laugh at my tenacity which you find both endearing and adorable," He pointed out. "Besides how can I be blamed for spying when technically, I was a spy? I wanted to be sure that you weren't bluffing just because I made you uncomfortable."

Marta thought back to those pleasurable visits in the lab, remembering them in explicit detail.

* * *

_Number Five was something of an enigma to Doctor Shearing. He wasn't as detached as the rest of her test subjects. All of the others came in and sat quietly, said a few words and answered her questions in the least amount of words possible. A few of them frightened her with their cold, dead like eyes and some had faces that simply didn't show expressions, like they were frozen ice sculptures. Number Five was the only one that liked to talk. It was from him that she found out the most. Usually she tried to forget what he said to her because it made her so uncomfortable. He sounded as though he was hinting at something, trying to make her guess as to the nature of whatever the subjects did outside of the lab. Marta didn't want to know. All of Number Five's antics and murky hints aside, he seemed to like her. Marta tried to remind herself that he was her patient, and even more than that she was already in a relationship with Peter, even if that relationship was falling apart. It never worked. Every time that Number Five turned those stormy, passionate eyes on her, something stirred within her. It wasn't like her to think of a person's eyes as passionate, but she could feel the man's intensity just by being in the room with him. It was disconcerting the way that he made her heart beat work overtime and her skin tingle with as little as a look. Sometimes her mind would wonder of its own accord what being touched by him would feel like if a mere look made her feel so much. But such fantasies were a moot point. He lived in his world, she lived in hers and the borders of their worlds didn't intersect._

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Marta moved up and kissed him soundly on the mouth as she reminisced on his visits to the lab. "When did you figure out that I was most certainly not uncomfortable, I was in fact, too comfortable?"

"When I saw the feed," He replied. She smiled and reached up to brush his hair line with a gentle hand.

"I hope you're warm enough now, darling, because some of us have to head to work."

"Working a nine to five job would kill me, you know that right?" He asked her rolling his eyes up to look long suffering at the ceiling "I would keel over dead, or kill my boss, whichever came first."

"Yes, which is why you have to play the stock market and buy companies so that you remain sane," Marta teased him. "You're like a border collie, did you know that?"

"A border collie?!" Aaron demanded sitting up, rather offended, but was suddenly distracted by her scantily clad figure slipping into a skirt and began watching her get dressed instead of protesting the K-9 comparison.

"Yes. They have a lot of energy and have to be kept busy so that they don't start causing mischief and finding troublesome things to do."

He laughed, understanding the metaphor. "You have no idea sweetheart. If you'd been with me in Africa you would have skinned me alive. I did plenty of crazy things. I antagonized corrupt politicians, rode motorcycles when it was raining like I had a death wish, got in the middle of bar fights between armed ethnic groups…."

"I had a feeling your trip went something like that," Marta confessed.

"You probably know me better than anyone else on the planet," He agreed, feeling a rush of warmth. It was true. His family, for all their good intentions about getting him back, couldn't relate to him at all when he called. They couldn't reconcile their sweet, somewhat bumbling, dumb jock kid with this cold, calculating man who could speak eleven languages and carve out someone's heart without flinching. He doubted that they ever would be able to. He kissed Marta good bye as she fended off his wandering hands and left him there in bed. It was cold without her in it and he vacated quickly it in favor of a steamy shower.

_When was the last time that I was this happy?_ Marta wondered as she drove to work. She'd had a total of four boyfriends in her whole life, but Aaron was the only one who'd ever made her feel this way. The way that he made her blood turned to molten lava when he kissed her, the passion that she hadn't known she was capable of, and most of all the butterflies in her stomach every time he looked at her were all too much. She hadn't imagined that she'd ever be able to share so much with one person. It reminded her of her parents' marriage, the type of marriage that defied all odds and lasted forever. When her father had died four years ago it'd been a month after her parent's forty first wedding anniversary. They'd met when her father had been in the service during the Vietnam War. The mere idea of their daughter dating a soldier had made her mother's liberal parent's hackles rise, but Melinda had done it anyways. She'd run away with him after he'd returned and they'd made it over every hurdle that the world had thrown at them, loving each other more every passing year. Would it be possible for her and Aaron to have that kind of relationship even if he didn't love her? She was so caught up in her thoughts that when her tire blew out, she nearly lost control of the car. It veered harshly to the right and her hands tightened on the wheel desperately trying to guide it to the shoulder. Gasping she slammed on the breaks pitching forward violently, but being knocked backwards by the air bag at the same time. The force of the blow was tremendous and she slipped out of consciousness immediately.

Peter Boyd exited the car behind her and rushed worriedly to her car door. He hadn't expected the small charge he'd place on her wheel to blowout when she was going so fast. Yanking the door open he sighed in relief when he saw that she was still breathing and only had a gash on her head. Removing Marta from the car with great care, he threw her over one shoulder with surprising strength for a man of his stature and started off towards the woods.

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**Thank you for reading. Please review and tell me what you think. **


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Okay, I know this chapter is a bit long, but I don't want to have too many chapters in this. Sometimes if you make a story really long it discourages people from reading your story, in my opinion. So, I'm clearing up everything Peter Boyd related in this chapter so I can finish this story by fixing Aaron and Marta's relationship. **

Chapter 13

There was light, Marta realized confused the warm kind of light, sunlight. Why was there sunlight if she had been in car accident shouldn't she be in the hospital? Had the car accident not happened? Had the car accident been a bad dream? She cracked open her eyes but shut them quickly to stop the burning light from painfully searing her eyes any longer. Something was underneath her- a blanket. She was lying on a blanket stretched over hay in some sort of barn she realized, carefully cracking her eyelids so that she could survey her surroundings. Tiredly she shut her eyes again as the light became too much for them.

"You're up! Oh, sweetheart, I was beginning to get worried," A voice exclaimed. The voice did not belong to Aaron and dread sank her heart lower. Slowly she cracked her eyes again and saw Peter's face blur in front of her eyes. He was dressed in ragged dirty clothes and looked in desperate need of a shower. This man bore no resemblance to the man that she'd dated three years ago and the difference shocked her. She hadn't seen it before, but now it was obvious, and she was afraid of the monster before her. There's something wrong with him, She realized, and terror coursed through her. I'll never see Aaron again, the thought echoed in her mind with gut wrenching finality.

"What?" She mumbled, trying to play injured and confused.

"I saved you darling, don't be afraid. I understand now, and it's okay," He reassured her madness shining in his eyes, his smile too wide and his face twisted grotesquely by the expression.

"I don't though… I don't understand," She said bringing her hand to the stinging head wound for emphasis and shutting her eyes as if she was deeply pained.

"You're safe from Aaron Cross. I didn't know who he was when I caught him in the woods. I thought that you had been cheating on him with me, but that wasn't the case at all! He was forcing you to be with him wasn't he? I mean you never called him and he broke into your apartment and he must have called you on the night that I was waiting to see you. He insisted that you be over to his house in eight minutes. I was so worried about you, Marta. It isn't safe to drive that fast."

"Oh. Does he know?" She asked trying to stay calm and keep her panic at bay._ How did he know about her and Aaron's phone calls? He even knew what Aaron had said to her! _Marta's skin crawled and she considered how to get away. Could she run? There was a soft drone of cars somewhere near here. They were probably close to the highway that he'd wrecked her car on.

"Yes. I'm sorry about blowing out your tire, I wasn't sure how to do it but you're okay aren't you?"

"I don't know, I'm seeing double," She played it up. Actually she was pretty sure that she was fine now that her eyes had adjusted to the light, but if he thought that she was injured maybe she would have a chance to get away.

"I'm sorry but I can't take you to a hospital, Cross will know if we check in."

"You said he knew that you…..rescued me," Marta said forcing the last words out as her stomach clenched.

"Well, yeah I called him. He needed to know that I'd taken you back. He won't be hounding us anymore, you can stop worrying about him now. Are you sure you're okay? Is your double vision gone?"

"I think I'll just lie back…." Marta trailed off, hoping that he'd leave her alone so that she could escape. Those hopes were dashed as he took a seat on a hay bale and she felt his gaze burn into her when she turned her back to him. She carefully measured her breathing, waiting. The hay made her itch and she felt her legs begin to cramp as the minutes turned into hours with Peter still watching her. The man had to leave sometime didn't he? She knew that he'd called Aaron and told him something to the effect that he had Marta but what exactly she had no clue. Hopefully he'd gotten the message and it was enough to send Aaron out looking for her. But that hope alone probably wouldn't save her. _I can't make a break for it with him hovering over me_, she thought, desolately. She stretched her legs carefully trying to act like it was a natural movement of sleep, keeping them limber. It was well after night fall when she finally heard him get up and crawl down the hayloft's ladder.

After acting like she was asleep almost all day she was grateful for the opportunity to act. Sitting up gingerly as he left, she took a good look around. They were in the hayloft of a barn, as she had suspected, where it appeared he'd been staying for days by the look of the things stacked in the corner and an old sleeping bag. Creeping down the ladder she reached the bottom rung and stepped down on to solid ground, where she stopped to listen. He was relieving himself outside of the barn. _Do I go for speed and run with all my might or do I try to sneak away_, Marta wondered, wishing that she had asked Aaron. _I'll go with sleuth. I don't want him to know which direction I've gone_, Marta decided. She headed in the opposite direction moving away from him. Outside the barn she sprinted towards the nearest cover, a hay yard, trying to be as silent as possible. Once she'd made it past the hay yard and to the forest she began to jog as quietly as she could. Years of being on the run with Aaron had taught her to conserve energy when she ran and she paced herself. Once she'd run almost a mile, she felt safe enough to stop for air and think. _I need people. I have to get to civilization_, she decided. Listening she found that she could still hear the cars. _Where am I?_ She wondered frantically, fighting panic and tears that welled in her eyes. _No panicking_, she coached herself, _not now if I panic I could die_. Setting off at a harder pace Marta headed south, noting the moss on the trees to tell her the directions_. At least I know which way I'm going_, she reassured herself.

Very close to her, Aaron Cross was cursing a blue streak. This was the worst day of his life. He'd contacted the police about Marta's kidnapping but fended them off from pigeon holing him in an interrogation, using several favors that the government owed him. Landy had been most helpful of all in suggesting that he could use a few more people with a similar skill set to help him look for Marta. She'd even gone to the trouble of contacting them for him and sending equipment. He tugged on the blue tooth in his ear making sure the attachment was still in place.

"Are you still there?" He asked the man on the other end.

"Yup. You've covered seven square miles and you're two miles out from the road. I'm looking at satellite feed from the accident now it just came up. Boyd definitely took her into these woods," Jason Bourne said confirming what the two men had suspected.

"Seven miles isn't good enough," Cross growled. There was a fumbling on the other end of the line. "What's up," He asked, keeping an eye out for broken branches while he moved silently through the underbrush.

"Nicky's here, she's going to take over communications. I'll put in another call to the comms and head out to check the area to your left."

"Good." He focused back on the woods in front of him and began searching. Three miles later he found a patch of broken branches near an unmarked foot path. He relayed this information to Jason and Nicky and began following the path.

"You're on an abandon walking path heading towards some type of a barn, it's two miles away. You're heading north, towards it. Hold on while I check satellite footage from a few days ago, he probably had to be in the area to plan a kidnapping this intricate," Nicky said. He heard the furious tapping of keys in the back ground and started jogging slightly to follow up on the promising lead.

"I've got something!" Nicky exclaimed. "There's a figure that's been using the barn in the images I can find they go back almost three weeks."

"Is the figure male or female?" Jason asked for him.

"It's definitely a man. The computer calculates his height to be about five foot nine and weight to be between 150 and 180 pounds, off the shadows it can measure."

"That fits with Peter Boyd," Aaron confirmed, saving Nicky from having to look up Boyd's arrest sheet to check. But knowing what he did about the delicate blonde woman she probably already was doing that just that.

"I'm going to cut off and head in the same direction. I think I can make it there a little after you in case you need back up," Bourne replied.

"Roger that," Cross replied.

He pushed himself faster, tasting fear in his mouth. He couldn't lose her, not just after he'd just gotten her. Things had been going so well. He needed her and it was uncomfortable for him. Men like him weren't supposed to need people, they were supposed to use them to get information, or kill them. Still his heart stuttered at the thought of losing her and he tried to think positive. He'd gone about half a mile when he heard the underbrush that had over grown the path stirring a few yards in front of him when someone crashed through it. Was it Boyd? The person fell hard and he could tell that they'd been injured as a gasp of pain was uttered.

"What's going on over there? I'm two miles away, damn it" Jason cursed in his ear.

"Someone's out here. Can you see anything on the live satellites Nicky?" Aaron said, keeping his voice soft.

"I've got nothing, the trees are too thick," She replied.

"It's only one person I'm going after them," He announced. Swiftly he crouched down and started moving towards the sound of the person, clicking off his flashlight. Using low growing plants for cover he circled around behind his prey and followed them, edging closer with every step. The footsteps were heavy, and he figured he was following a man, likely Boyd. Finally, he was close enough to the person to tackle them. Bending his knees he took three running steps, pushed off the ground and lunged at the person. Two bodies crashed together and they tumbled down into a ravine; he pulled his knife out as they fell and rolled using the momentum so when they stopped and he was on top of the figure. He held the knife to the person's throat, prepared to slice the jugular vein.

"Marta?" He gasped when he saw who he was on top of. She whimpered underneath him and he immediately rolled off her, tossing the knife to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Nicky and Jason's breath sounded in his ear but neither asked questions. He was grateful for that.

"My ex-boyfriend blew the tire out of my car and dragged me to a barn where he held me all day! No I am not fine," She yelled hysterically at him. "And then I got tackled by you in the woods and I thought that you were him and you were going to kill me! Do you think I'm fine?"

"No," Aaron agreed, shrinking back slightly. "Are you injured?"

"I hurt my hand falling down a hill over there," She sniffed. "Do you have any idea how to get out of these woods?" Marta asked him. He didn't reply but pulled her into his chest and held her in a grip to tight it was nearly painful. For the first time all day he took a breath that wasn't shaking with fear.

"Guys, she's okay," He said into the Bluetooth sighs of relief could be heard from both of his companions

"What?" Marta asked pulling back and looking at him.

"I worked with Nicky and Jason to find you," He explained pointing out the Bluetooth in his ear. "So yes I know how to get you out of here. Let's go home, honey."

"Fine," Marta agreed accepting his hand as he helped her up.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: This is kind of short but I'm setting myself up to tie off the whole story, so bear with me.**

Chapter 14

Four days had passed since Marta's kidnapping. Aaron had destroyed Marta's bugged phone and presented her with a new one the next morning. She'd then taken the week off from work, at Aaron's insistence, to recover and to move in with him. He'd been very cloak and dagger about the whole thing, surprising her with the idea and pitching it to her one morning while they ate breakfast in bed, selling it to her like a used car salesman. She'd started giggling halfway through and he'd stopped, highly offended, demanding to know what exactly she found so funny about his proposal.

"Of course I'll move in with you! Did you think that I'd say no?" She'd laughed at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him passionately.

Today they were celebrating her moving in with him by going out for dinner.

"Oh, by the way, my mother found out about us through her spies," She informed him as they sat down at a table on the restaurant's outdoor patio.

"Your mother has spies," Aaron asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"Well, more like friends who happened to be watching us when we met up for coffee and just happened to take a picture of us together and send it to her." He tilted his head back and laughed.

"You're kidding! When was this?"

"I'm not sure but they sent her a picture of us having coffee sometime a few months ago. She told me about it a few days after we first started dating."

"Your mother sounds fun," He admitted, accepting his plate from the waiter.

"She is, she is. But nosy about my life, it's a miracle she didn't have your birth certificate and home address before she called me."

"Technically, Aaron Cross doesn't have a birth certificate," He pointed out.

"Point taken," Marta agreed.

They settled into their dinner and enjoyed making small talk about almost everything, with the notable exception of her very recent fiasco with Peter Boyd. They hadn't pursed the man, choosing instead to go home and file a police report. Aaron had grudgingly made a statement with details and kept a careful eye on Marta around the police station. He'd left out the details about Jason Bourne and Nicky Parsons and the CIA equipment and satellites that Pamela Landy had lent to them. The police knew that he'd received a call that his girlfriend had been kidnapped and that he'd gone after her using his government training. A simple Google search of his name had let their imaginations fill in most of the blanks in his statement and soon enough they were let go. He'd gotten rid of all the excess fear that he'd felt that night by losing it in her, feeling the fear lessen with each thrust of their hips, driving home the fact that she was safe again. That night he'd laid awake stoking her hair and holding her close to him thinking. He would never let her go. She could do anything and she would always have him, because she was a vital piece of him that he needed with alarming intensity. Aaron forgave himself for loving her more than other men loved their women, because love was the one thing that he hadn't thought himself capable of. It ran deeper than he'd imagined that it would and it drugged him until he couldn't stand the thought of living one day without that love. Tonight he intended to ensure that she would be tied to him forever, with the contents of the box that was in his jacket pocket.

"Marta we've only been together for what, almost two months?"

"Umm…yes," She said, nervously as she set down her fork. _We just moved in together there is no way he'd break up with me right now, _Marta reassured herself.

He reached across the table and took her hand in his.

"I want us to be together for more than a couple months. I don't ever want to lose you, like I almost did when Boyd kidnapped you. I didn't believe that I could feel anything until I started feeling things with you. I thought that I was bound be die a cold lonely man, but you changed all of those plans. When I told you that you were the best thing that ever happened to me and I meant it. Whatever pieces of me made it through the training program are yours and because of that I want to make sure that we're permanent."

He pushed back his chair and knelt down on one knee. "Marta will you marry me," He asked pulling the ring box from his jacket and presenting it to her.

"YES!" She exclaimed when she saw the ring, tears springing to her eyes. She threw herself into his arms ignoring the ring. The ring was of little importance, only Aaron mattered. "Of course I'll marry you," She said joyfully. The patrons began to clap behind them.

"Everyone is staring at us," She moaned when she heard the applause, burying her face in his chest, embarrassment reddening her face. Aaron chuckled. Tilting her face up to his he kissed her deeply, dipping her back with flourish. The applause increased, and he ended the kiss and helped her up from the ground.

"You enjoyed that little show way more than I expected you to," She accused him as the blush deepened to a rose color.

"I like the whole world knowing my intentions about you," He answered smugly.

"I'm sure you do," She replied rolling her eyes, "Men."

He just smirked and stole a bite of her chocolate cake.

**Please review. **


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Alas, we near the end. I'm aiming to tie all this off in the next chapter. Thank you for being my biggest readership ever and for all the faithful reviews, they've been inspiring and helpful but without further ado here is, Chapter 15.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Bourne Series.**

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Chapter 15

The next morning he woke her with a kiss.

"Mmmm…. I want to wake up like this forever," She sighed as he brushed his mouth across hers again.

"I think I can manage that," Aaron whispered softly in her ear as she opened her eyes.

"If I wasn't so sleepy we could make wedding plans," Marta said arching her back and stretching.

"We can decide a date. I was thinking….. Oh, nine weeks from now, max," Aaron told her.

"NINE WEEKS!" Marta yelled jerking upright. Their heads connected with a hard bump at the action. "I'm sorry are you okay," She asked him, distracted.

"Fine, you?"

"I'm good, but Aaron nine weeks? We're supposed to plan whole wedding in nine weeks?"

"We plan covert missions in two weeks," Aaron pointed out, not seeing the problem at all. _It's just a wedding, _he thought, confused.

"My wedding will not be a black ops mission," She said firmly giving him a look. "There's cake, center pieces, invitations, venues, dresses, tuxedos, and shoes to think about here."

"Shoes? Are you joking?" He asked. She rolled her eyes at him.

"You'll learn," She reassured him.

"I'll learn what?" He asked completely bewildered.

"Well, among other things, that finding the perfect pair of shoes to wear to your wedding is a very difficult task."

Aaron decided to let that one go. _Shoes seem to be a very serious topic_, he noted.

"If we don't have a wedding planned in two weeks, I'm dragging you to a court house, or Las Vegas. Nine weeks is my ultimatum. If you look at it from my perspective I'm actually being quite generous," Aaron said.

Marta sighed. "If we can keep the guests down and don't do anything fancy, I think we can plan something in nine weeks."

"Well, you should probably know in advance that all of my immediate family will be coming out for the wedding. My sister, her husband and kids, of course my mother and probably my cousins Jesse and Ryan will be coming too. But I think that's just about my guest list besides a few army buddies I reconnected with and some of my employees."

"I'll try to keep my side of the guest list down too," Marta agreed. Nine weeks! What did he think he was getting himself into? "I'd rather not stress myself out so much that I can't enjoy my own wedding."

Aaron smiled and sat back against the head board and listened contentedly to Marta discuss their wedding plans as she pulled a notebook out of her nightstand drawer. It made him smile to think of their wedding. _I should have proposed as soon as I knew that she was the one,_ He thought studying her face as she rattled off tuxedo places. He already had a hand made tuxedo from Italy in the back of his closet, but he'd let her know that later. It was far too enjoyable to watch her rattle off lists of things to plan and do before the wedding.

The only thing that brought him down as he listened to her go on about their wedding plans was the knowledge that she still didn't love him. That knowledge weighted on his shoulders and burned like acid in his stomach as he listened to the planning, taking note of his list of tasks. It wasn't likely that she was able to love him, after everything that he'd done in the past. What woman could? He knew that he didn't deserve her love, so it shouldn't weigh so heavy on him that he didn't have it. He'd hurt her by showing up so abruptly in her life, dragging her half way around the world after she'd experienced to worst trauma of her life for his own selfish reasons. It could be argued that without him Marta would have died, but through his self-deprecating haze he didn't think of that.

All that he was thinking about were the years that he'd spent in the shadows, devoid of emotion until he'd eventually turned into the monster little kids saw in the closet at night. He tightened his arm around her as she listed off venues and was grateful that she was marrying him anyway, even if it might be because of Stockholm's syndrome. Or maybe it was Knight in Shining Armor syndrome, without the damsel in distress part. His mouth quirked in amusement, and he struggled not to laugh at the idea of Marta as a damsel in distress. No, his Marta was a warrior. She would have stolen a sword and slayed the dragon herself, the same way she'd escaped Peter Boyd in that barn. Whatever the reasons she had for marrying him he was grateful for them.

"I think that I should go start really planning this thing if you want us to get married in nine weeks," Marta announced sliding out of bed.

"We could plan things in bed," Aaron replied, leering at her in the short night gown.

"Yes, but I'm going to plan a wedding, not the things you have in mind," Marta admonished as she grabbed her robe and fled down the stairs to the dining room.

Once safely in the room she blew out a sharp breath where she knew Aaron couldn't hear her. _We're getting married in just over two months_, Marta thought dazedly. The idea was foreign to her. She'd all but given up the idea of being married when she'd fallen in love with Aaron on that boat in the Philippines. The love that she felt for him frightened her with its intensity. She had always been the girl who closed herself off and only reveled what she wanted to. It had served her well in her work as a scientist, because the others around her had always passed off her reserved nature and thought her to be an excellent clinical scientist. Pervious bosses when she was younger had often wondered how someone so young could be so professional, but in earnest she'd just been trying to maintain distance from the people around her. There was nothing professional about it. Much of her efforts went into maintaining distance. People were messy and confusing to her, they always had been. Their reactions could come from any end of the spectrum and you never knew what they were going to do next. That unpredictability really got to her. It bothered her on a deep level, and she often found herself wishing that people would just be more rational and patterned. Each one should come with a manual, she told herself. What to say so that you don't offend, what makes them happy, what makes them sad and how to keep them pleased. It would make life so much easier.

But people would never come with manuals, and she would never be able to deal with their erratic moods and behaviors. It was much easier for her to stay in a lab, away from patients and people. That was what did work, keeping them far enough away that she wouldn't be affected by their behavior, mood, or whatever else they were up to. _Eliza is the opposite,_ she thought with a rueful smile at the thought of her younger sister. _If Eliza was in love with Aaron she would jump in head first and make him love her until he was so wrapped up in her blonde hair and blue eyes that he could never think of living without her_. Marta thought of her sister fondly, regardless of their extreme differences. _I should call her_, Marta realized suddenly. Her younger sister would be much wiser than her when it came to matters of the heart and the bubbly blonde was just who Marta needed to help her get through this wedding. _But I should probably ask her to be the maid of honor before I tell her that I have cold feet_, she decided, making a note in her laptop. Let the wedding planning begin, she thought, feeling a headache crop up.

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Seven weeks later Marta and Aaron stood at a gate in Ronald Reagan international, waiting for his mother's plane to arrive. Meeting your boyfriend's mother could never be a pleasant experience: never ever. That was what Marta Sheering was about to do and it was not a happy sensation. About now she wanted to crawl out of her skin or bury herself in a deep hole, where she would never meet another family matriarch who would critically size her up and then decide a verdict over her acceptability to be with her son. A verdict that she would never get to hear spoken aloud, and would have to guess at by Mrs. Kitsome's reactions to her: the whole process was wreaking havoc on her nerves as they rode home from the airport together. It didn't help that Mrs. Kitsome didn't fit the image she'd had of a worn older woman wrinkled and tired from years of work. Instead she was a lovely, too young for fifty four with light brown hair was just beginning to fade in color. No, Mrs. Kitsome was not the woman she'd been expecting.

Numbly she'd smiled at Hannah Kitsome and had accepted her warm hug, wondering if it was a ruse. Maybe she was just trying to kill her with kindness and really hated her. But regardless of her shock over Mrs. Kitsome, she was bothered by much more than that. It was like Aaron's life didn't make any sense all of a sudden. The image she'd created of his life before outcome and the military wasn't adding up anymore. He obviously didn't come from a low income family, he came from an upper class family instead. His father had obviously passed away since Mrs. Kitsome had referred to a late husband when she'd met Marta. 'My late husband would have loved to see Aaron get married,' had been her exact words. Marta had somehow assumed that Aaron's father hadn't been in the picture. I've assumed way too much about him, she recognized fearfully. I need to get his story, and we only have a week until the wedding! I can't marry a man that I don't even know! I don't even know what day his birthday is! I'm a terrible fiancée! Oh, please Eliza get here soon!

"So what were you thinking about a wedding venue," Hannah Kitsome asked Marta, pulling her abruptly away from her panicked thoughts.

"We were thinking of renting a yacht to get married on and keeping it for the reception," Marta replied politely.

"That's a lovely idea, dear," Hannah replied. "How nice to capitalize on the ocean views you have out here."

Marta smiled and thanked her genuinely. She hadn't actually been thinking about the views at all when she'd suggested the boat. What had been on her mind was the way that they'd been on the boat in the Philippines. Those were some of the best memories of her life. That doesn't say much for my life, she thought sarcastically, knowing all the while that it was untrue. Falling in love would always be one of her best memories, regardless of whether she was loved back. That didn't stop the hurt that she was beginning to feel very poignantly from tightening her chest again. They were getting married and he didn't love her. He couldn't love her. He would never love her. He'd said that she was the best thing that had ever happened to him and that she held the last pieces of his humanity, but that wasn't love. What would happen to their relationship when he found out that he was healed and perfectly human? He wouldn't need her anymore and they'd grow apart. Then they'd start to fight, then they'd keep secrets from each other…..and on it would go until they hated and resented each other. Determined to keep strong, Marta turned her attentions on to wedding planning with Hannah, discussing when the next dress fitting would be.

The dress was finished within the week and Eliza and Melinda had showed up in town as well. Somehow in the whirlwind of wedding planning Marta hadn't gotten the chance to spill her fears to either her sister or her mother. In fact she'd hardly had a chance to see Aaron, let alone speak to him about how she felt. His cousins had arrived what felt like seconds after his mother and he'd either been helping with the wedding, doing business up in the attic or hanging out on the porch with his cousins since then. It was ridiculous, the way that she couldn't see him for even a second. She'd tried, but someone had stopped her and told her there was a stain on the wedding dress. Again, she'd tried but the hairstylist had arrived early and wanted to get started practicing for the wedding day and on and on it went. The entire world it seemed was conspiring against her in this. It wasn't until the night of the wedding party that Marta had gotten up the courage to tell Aaron that she just couldn't marry him because the marriage was doomed. It would hurt, but she couldn't trap him if he didn't love her and she did love him- too much. Over the week she'd come to see that loving him would be her downfall. Love as strong as the love she held for Aaron couldn't be controlled forever, and eventually he'd find out and be horrified because he didn't reciprocate her feelings. Then he would pity her. Slowly he would remove himself from her life because her love made him uncomfortable- she could see it coming. Marta dreaded the inevitable day that pity would come. No, she couldn't go through with this wedding because it would be a mistake to marry someone who didn't- couldn't- love her.

_Why can't I even get a moment alone with my own fiancé_? Marta thought, annoyed as everyone seemed to get in her way as she tried to make her way through the party guests_. Well if you do get a moment alone with him, he won't be your fiancé….._her mind tyrannically whispered to her. She banished the thought. Looking around, she studied his family, who'd been nothing but warm and kind to her. _What are they going to think of me when I call off the wedding?_ She wondered, stricken by the thought.

_That's enough. I have to do this. It isn't the caterer, the hairstylist or anything else that is stopping me, it's me now. I just can't get up the nerve to do this- I have too, she scolded herself harshly. Move. Walk through the party guests find Aaron and ask to talk to him privately._

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**Please leave a review. **


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: I confess I was not delayed in updating because I was so terribly busy, out of internet connection or any other good excuse. No, this Fiction was delayed because I did not want to see this story end. Forgive me, readers? **

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Bourne Series. **

Chapter 16

As Marta instructed her body it began to move and she headed towards where Aaron was standing. Each step made her insides tremble with fear and regret. _I don't want to do this but I have to, _she reminded herself._ I can't marry him if I know that the marriage is doomed. It isn't fair to either of us_. Bravely, Marta continued her journey across the room to where Aaron stood, ready to do what she had to.

"Aaron we need to talk," Marta said softly tapping his shoulder, struggling to keep up a façade of normalcy while she felt ready to fall into pieces she was so brittle.

"Can you wait just a minute, love? I have to go tell the caterer that we're out of wine." Aaron replied, not pausing to look at her, but taking her hand absent mindedly. The places where he touched her suddenly felt like erroneous zones and made her heart kick up a notch and her breath shorten. She sucked in air, hoping to starve off the reaction and focus. He began to make his way to the kitchen brining her with him, his mind on the wine.

"Aaron!" Marta exclaimed, desperate for his attention. _I have to call this off RIGHT NOW,_ she decided, desperately fearing her nerve would fail at the last second. Her free hand curled into an anxious fist and she felt the nails bite painfully into her palm. Aaron turned to look at her, surprised at her uncharacteristic forcefulness. Seeing her drawn, pale face he altered his path abruptly, cutting through the guests and leading her on to the back patio. Leading her into the cool night air he lead her only a few steps towards the swimming pool for the sake of privacy and then turned to face his tense fiancé.

"What is it? What's wrong?" He demanded worriedly, struggling to keep calm as he grasped her hands, and pulled her close to him to protect her from the crisp December chill.

"It's all a mistake," She told him, flatly.

"I don't understand," He said. "What's a mistake?"

_If only he wasn't this tender and patient_, she thought frantically while salty tears slid down her face.

"The wedding," She elaborated. "It's a mistake."

"I don't understand," Aaron stalled. He did, though, completely, even if he didn't want to understand it. _Play dumb, beat around the bush and create a strategy, win her back. Plenty of brides get cold feet_, he reassured himself.

"I can't do this because I love you! I love you more than anything! I can't marry you if you don't love me and I know that you can't because of what Outcome did to you! Your expectations of me are too high! I can't be the wife you deserve, who gives you the freedom and distance you'll need when I love you this much! I can't marry someone and drown in one sided love for them until I go crazy!" She exclaimed, gripping his hands as tears streamed down her face. Choking back sobs she pulled off the diamond engagement ring and held it out, waiting for him to take it. He stared at the ring in shock, unmoving. A moment passed and she pushed the ring into his hand.

"I'm so sorry, Aaron, but I can't disappoint you. I love you," She whispered, gasping to force the words past the rising lump in her throat. Spinning, she took off as quickly as she could walk in her heels around the house, fleeing. Tears blurred her vision and she could hardly see through the film of salt water that covered her eyes, but she followed the sidewalk, knowing it would take her to the gate and far away from this crisis. One foot in front of the other, she coached herself. Misery tightened her chest as she painfully accepted what she had done, but she continued to walk.

A hard arm clamped around her waist and dragged her around sharply so that she was flush against another body. A small scream flew from her throat as she caught a glimpse of Aaron's furious, cold face when he threw her over his shoulder and headed towards the garage.

"What are you doing?!" She demanded, outraged at his manhandling.

"I'm taking my fiancé away from this damn party," He snapped and deposited her in the passenger seat of his car.

"You can't-"

"_YES_, I can!" Aaron barked forcefully, throwing the car in reverse and backing out of the garage. On the porch his cousins waved, tipped their beers at them and smiled knowing smirks as the car speed past, having witnessed the later part of their exchange. Opening the screen door, Hannah stuck her head out the door.

"Do you suppose that there's any hope they'll come back and enjoy the rest of the party?" She asked Jesse and Ryan who were watching the Mercedes' tail lights disappear. "No, don't answer that, of course not- well, we can party without them."

Aaron drove for several miles, his anger sizzling wildly between them like a visible fire. Nervously Marta waited in the seat beside him as he stewed, keeping quiet. Tears still slipped down her cheeks but she held in her sobs. She wondered if she should say something, or ask where they were going. Glancing at him out of the corner of her eye she didn't dare ask. Why he'd kidnapped her she didn't know. At least the last time he'd taken her she'd known why. Instead of analyzing his behavior she squeezed her eyes shut and willed the tears to stop. _Why does he have to drag this out?_ Marta wondered sorrowfully as pain, misery and loss threatened to overtake her self-control and a new wave of tears slid silently down her face.

Five minutes later they pulled into a charming little hotel somewhere outside of the D.C limits. Leaving the car for a few seconds Aaron headed inside and picked up a key leaving a terse order for her to stay put. It really wasn't as though she had any other choice, but she still didn't say anything, only nodding submissively in response.

"Why are we here," She asked as he pulled her out of the car. Roughly he pressed her up against the car while he put the engagement ring back on the proper finger. Not acknowledging her question he half dragged her into the hotel room with three strides and one strong arm. A sharp slam echoed when he let the heavy door fall closed. "Why are we here, Aaron?" She tried again as he locked the door behind them.

"We're going to talk about this," He snarled, his voice guttural with rage. "Let's start. Screw Outcome, screw my damn training, and screw everything they said about me at the hearings. I'm not their damned puppet, and I never will be. If I was a freaking puppet I'd be dead right now. The only standards that you're going to 'disappoint' are the illusionist ones in your own head and quite frankly I don't give a rat's ass about those! I don't want anything but you all of you and no standards or expectations or whatever applies to that. Do you really think that I can't love, Marta? I'd be a monster if I fell in line with all of their training. I wouldn't have emotions at all. Believe me I have emotions, you're witnessing them right now!" He growled roughly staring down at her where she sat on the bed in stunned silence.

"I love you," Aaron continued. "I didn't think that you loved me. After all who would love a killer? A weapon that'd been put out of commission and nearly broken- would a woman like you? Never in a million years." He broke off and clenched his fists in rage, snarling and fighting for control. "Do you have any idea what it felt like? You said it's over and I love you all in the same breath! I nearly died! I'd been trying to make you love me all along! With sex, with romance, protection, trust, whatever I could! And then I hear you say that you love me but you can't be my wife? Do you know what that did to me?" Aaron barked bitterly. Reaching his for his collar he began unbuttoning his shirt.

"What are you doing?" Marta asked, reeling in both shock and euphoria.

"I'm going to prove to you that I love you," Aaron announced tossing the shirt behind him and stalking towards her. Picking her up easily he lifted her into his arms and deposited her on the bed and placed a branding possessive kiss on her lips plundering her mouth with his, determined to put her under his spell. Stripping her of her clothes he let his hands roam over her curves but didn't make a move to go any further slanting his mouth over hers and twining their tongues in a pleasurable dance. Torturing her with his iron restraint he nipped her lower lip and stroked her tongue with his until her nerve endings danced with fiery sensations and she couldn't think beyond the feel of him against her. If you'd asked her name she wouldn't have been able to give the correct answer she was so worked up. Slowly he brought himself under complete control as the fear of losing her stopped twisting in his chest and he could breathe properly again. Soaking up the feel of her in his arms he kissed her softly, almost apologizing for his rough treatment earlier and planted a sweet, gentle kiss on her swollen mouth.

"Let's start this over from my proposal. I love you, and I want you to marry me tomorrow, will you, Marta?" Aaron asked, pulling back. Hardly believing that she could feel this tremendous, euphoric, love, Marta linked her arms around his neck and looked up into his turbulent green eyes.

"Yes."

Standing before the minister the next day Aaron felt tense and fought nerves, despite the night that they'd spent together before. At least she can't run away on the boat, he reassured himself. Relief and joy coursed through him in equal abundance as she stepped into the yacht's ball room in a cream satin gown. The familiar faces of family and friends turned and watched her as she walked by, and if Aaron had been paying attention to anything other than his bride he would have seen a tear course down Pamela Landy's cheek. Jason Bourne however did see the tear and elbowed Nicky next to him, pointing out the legendary CIA director in a rare moment of weakness. She smiled and laid her hand on his arm, leaning over.

"How do you think she'll look when we invite her to our wedding?" Nicky asked.

"Worse than this- she's a real sucker for romance isn't she?" Jason whispered back to his fiance with a smirk. Nicky pressed her lips together tightly to smother a giggle before turning her attention back to where Aaron and Marta stood at the altar.

Miraculously Marta was free of nerves that day as she took the final steps to Aaron and handed her bouquet to her maid of honor, Eliza. Aaron loved her- everything else was meaningless in the face of that reassurance. She was sure that there was nowhere in the world she would rather be than here, on this yacht at her wedding. She wouldn't even trade if for the boat back in the Philippines- no, this was much better, she decided taking Aaron's hands. _I'm beyond happiness_, Marta thought in elation as her heart drummed a staccato beat while they recited their vows, gazing steadily into each other's eyes.

**I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review this story. I was thrilled to hear about all of your thoughts, suggestions and especially your corrections (which were kindly given). It means a lot that you took the time to give me feedback, thank you all. **

**Please Review and tell me what you thought of the whole story. **


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